'Smart city' project stalls

Thousands of Johannesburg pupils, commuters and ordinary residents are the big losers following a delay in the city's R1-billion broadband network project.

The 900km of fibre-optic network laid out across the city was intended to enable the rollout of 1300 Wi-Fi hotspots along Rea Vaya routes - and connectivity in all public buildings.

Plans for a "smart city" have stalled because authorities are entangled in arbitration talks that are preventing the project being brought to fruition.

One of the issues is the payment of a R1.2-billion settlement to Ericsson SA.

Settling with Ericsson SA would absolve the city from paying the company R3.348-billion over the 12 years the contract was to have run.

Ericsson SA triggered the arbitration talks after the City of Johannesburg terminated the contract prematurely following allegations that the company was - along with CitiConnect Communications and BWired - guilty of contract breaches.

Delays in the project have also affected residents with electricity smart meters at their homes. Although the smart meter rollout and the broadband project were conceived as separate initiatives, connection to the broadband network would have ensured seamless interaction between the 5000 meters and City Power's data centre.

Loyiso Ntshikila, chief of staff in the mayor's office, confirmed earlier this week that a number of meters across the city were not relaying information to City Power's data centre as expected.

This, he said, was because the meters were prone to signal interruptions in much the same way as cellphones were susceptible to dropped signals.

To fix the problem, the meters could be configured to the broadband network. But this cannot happen while the network is still dormant.

Speaking to The Times yesterday, Mayor Parks Tau said the project had been stalled by settlement talks and would remain on ice for a while to come.

Tau added that the projects affected included in-house connections to cater for the city's ICT needs, internet access to public libraries and Wi-Fi hotspots along the Rea Vaya routes.

"I am saying to you that when you terminate and someone says: 'I'm not happy' then it means they have a problem with the terms of termination.

"So we said their actions effectively repudiated the contract. They are disputing that and it is a matter we will have to contest at an arbitrator, but with a possible settlement. So we are running the process in a parallel way, seeking solutions to the matter.

"Unfortunately we cannot take our arbitration documents into the public arena. We need to give management leeway to negotiate and that is a resolution of council," said Tau.

Ericsson SA has repeatedly refused to speak publicly on the matter.