BWired, a joint venture between the City of Johannesburg and Ericsson, has completed a 300km, 1,2Tbit/s core fibre-optic broadband network at a cost of R250m. The network stretches from the south of Soweto to Midrand in the north.

A further investment of R600m is now planned, to build about 600km of metropolitan fibre closer to metro buildings, residential suburbs and schools. Businesses and consumers should start to benefit from the network in the fourth quarter of 2012, says BWired executive director Musa Nkosi.

The estimated total investment in the network is R1,2bn. The network will be self-funding and additional taxes won’t be imposed on ratepayers, city officials say. Construction should be completed by 2013.

Capacity will be resold to Internet service providers wanting to provide services to consumers. BWired will not provide Internet access directly to residential consumers in the short term, but says service providers will be able to buy capacity to provide services.

“By the end of next year, people will start to get benefits from the infrastructure,” says Nkosi. “Our immediate need is to serve City of Johannesburg offices and points of presence. The next phase will be to tackle businesses and residential areas, probably by September or December next year.”

Nkosi says almost 100 buildings have been hooked up to the fibre network so far, meaning the project is running three months ahead of schedule. City of Johannesburg buildings are being served with 1Gbit/s connections.

“The thinking is businesses and other industries should be able to get in excess of 1Gbit/s, up to 5Gbit/s,” he says. “We expect desktop users to be able to connect at up to 100Mbit/s.”

BWired has established two network operations centres, one at its head office at Woodmead in Sandton, and the other in downtown Johannesburg.

Outgoing Johannesburg executive mayor Amos Masondo says capacity on the network will be rented out “at competitive rates, helping to bring down the cost of connectivity”. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral