Time to boot up
Government’s faith in Telkom to provide the necessary ICT capacity demanded by Fifa for the 2010 soccer World Cup seems likely to pay off.
There has been concern about whether Telkom can provide world-class ICT infrastructure to support the multimillion rand International Broadcasting Centre (IBC), a 30 000m² media nerve centre, to be built in Nasrec, Johannesburg.
All broadcast transmissions from the World Cup stadiums, and distribution will be facilitated through the IBC 24 hours a day for 10 weeks.
Arthur Goldstuck, CEO of World Wide Worx, believes Telkom has the technical capability and resources to meet the Fifa requirements.
"They may have compromised quality when it comes to consumers but the technical capability and taste and sophistication of the required infrastructure will be up when we host the World Cup," he says.
SA lags its international counterparts in terms of ICT penetration and the rate of implementing new technology. Added to this is the ongoing issue of the lack of sufficient bandwidth.
Telkom is investing R3,2bn between 2006 and 2010 in the Next Generation Network (NGN) to facilitate the changes.
The idea behind NGN is that one network transports all information and services (voice, data, video) by summing it up into packets. The network will help increase bandwidth.
Fifa’s deadline for completion of the IBC is March 2010.
The IBC will include radio and TV broadcasting studios; a convenience store; and mailing, courier, banking, cleaning, catering, and medical and emergency services.
According to a Grant Thornton study, the IBC will create 3 370 jobs and contribute R341m to the city’s GDP.
Neither the SABC nor government will be directly involved in its construction.
2010 ICT infrastructure discussion
Loading ...