New Infrastructure Encourages Collaboration and Hopes to Inspire Other Communities
ADVA Optical Networking announced today that the Municipality of Cape Town has deployed the FSP 3000 in a pioneering not-for-profit municipally-owned network that aims to bring new levels of data connectivity to Cape Town. Spanning over 100km of fiber, the network’s initial core ring configuration connects key municipal offices throughout the city offering MPLS and 10Gbit/s Ethernet services. As well as enabling the City to deliver bandwidth to libraries, schools, hospitals, research institutions and other organizations, the network will ultimately provide service providers, enterprises and communities with a shared infrastructure to offer affordable commercial services.
“We believe the network we’ve built here is a first for Africa,” commented Leon van Wyk, telecommunications manager at City of Cape Town. “By building our own dark fiber network, we’re able to drive the rollout of broadband services throughout the municipality and the region. Our mandate is primarily to provide high bandwidth network services to government entities, including schools, clinics, hospitals and libraries, but we also want to encourage the private sector to deliver every business, family and organization the bandwidth they need to participate in the modern knowledge economy. Data is the currency of tomorrow and with ADVA Optical Networking’s help, support and direction, we’ve built a strong foundation for the future.”
This network marks the first step for the Municipality of Cape Town as it seeks to drive universal broadband coverage throughout Cape Town. The network’s core currently consists of eight nodes and will use the scalability of the FSP 3000 to accommodate the expected demand for high capacity, secure networks. The next phase of the project will expand the core ring to all parts of the Cape Town metro, with up to 100 new nodes. The Municipality hopes that its work here will be modelled by other cities and that it will ignite rapid broadband adoption throughout the region.
“This is an incredible project to be involved in,” commented Günter Landers, sales director, Africa, ADVA Optical Networking. “The Municipality of Cape Town is developing a network that will dramatically impact upon the community. It will provide high-speed connectivity for a whole range of government services, as well as enabling people to access applications such as remote learning, telemedicine and video conferencing. But this is just the beginning. By using the FSP 3000, the City will be able to scale its network to match the data demand, ensuring it has bandwidth where and when it needs.”
The FSP 3000 is a scalable Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) system specifically designed for large enterprises and service providers that require a flexible, cost-effective system that will multiplex, transport and protect high-speed data, storage, voice and video applications over fiber optic networks.
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