Bay to be part of fibre optic network
[caption id="attachment_38024" align="alignright" width="300"] MASSIVE PROJECT: FibreCo stakeholder management head Tito Ndibongo, left, enterprise development manager Ellen Fischat and Seda NMB ICT Incubator centre manager Sipelo Lupondwana interviewed hopefuls for a fibre optic training programme at the Seda offices in Newton Park yesterday. Picture: FREDLIN ADRIAAN[/caption]
A GROUP of technicians will be given the opportunity of a lifetime to be trained for a R5-billion rollout of the largest long- distance open access fibre optic network in the country.
Hopefuls interviewed by FibreCo Telecommunications in Port Elizabeth yesterday will hear next week if they made the cut to be trained in this "technology of choice".
They will form part of a group of 10 SMMEs and 15 graduates to be trained by FibreCo, in partnership with Seda NMB ICT Incubator (SNII), ahead of FibreCo's rollout starting later this year of a project which will link Cape Town and Durban via the Bay and East London using the latest fibre optic technology.
FibreCo stakeholder management head Tito Ndibongo said fibre optic technology was at a peak.
"It is the technology of choice for providing scarce skills in the sector and the platform of choice," Ndibongo said.
FibreCo has already completed half of the first phase of the project, laying almost 2400km of fibre optic cabling which has linked Johannesburg, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and East London.
The entire network between Cape Town and Durban, via the Eastern Cape, will be linked up by 2016 and consist of 5000km of state-of-the-art fibre optic cabling which is set to reduce the cost of internet access while increasing connectivity speeds.
Once the R5-billion project is completed it will make FibreCo South Africa's largest long-distance open access fibre optic network.
FibreCo human resources executive Tshepo Mpaneng said the calibre of the interviewees, from Port Elizabeth and the rest of the Eastern Cape had been amazing.
"We were more targeted in what we wanted – they needed to have an accredited ICT qualification," Mpaneng said.
The successful group of 25 trainees could be absorbed by the company to assist with maintenance work and support, once the fibre optic cabling network is completed, or employed by other companies specialising in fibre optic technology.
The ICT accreditation will equip trainees to be able to maintain and repair complex fibre optic networks locally or abroad. On completion of the training the technicians will be certified under the internationally recognised Fibre Optic Association, which will be involved during the construction and maintenance of the network.
Seda NMB ICT Incubator centre manager Sipelo Lupondwana said the incubator would play a key role in assisting the trainees "to be given the opportunity to apply the knowledge", once they had undergone the intensive month-long training programme.
One of the hopefuls who were waiting to be interviewed by FibreCo yesterday in Port Elizabeth, Mawethu Banzi, is part of the Seda ICT incubator in East London and travelled all the way to Port Elizabeth for the interview opportunity.
Banzi owns a small ICT business, Unakho Technologies, and he said there was a need for entrepreneurs in the province to be trained in fibre technology in order to improve especially slow links and increase bandwidth in rural areas such as Transkei.
FibreCo has already trained 50 technicians nationally as part of the company's undertaking to train 200 technicians across SA. Already at least 15 graduates have been absorbed by the company as interns.
Phase 1 of the project will create more than 2300 direct and indirect jobs. Phase 2 will feature additional routes to the Western Cape, the Northern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, as well as the borders of Botswana and Mozambique. - Cindy Preller
