NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION 792
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER:
INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER
14 AUGUST 2009:
"792. Ms MR Shinn (DA) to ask the Minister of Science and Technology:
(1)
Whether a certain network (details furnished) has been installed and
implemented; if not why not, if so, (a) when was it installed and
implemented, (b) how many institutions are connected to and running
on the network, and (c)(i) which institutions are using the network and
(ii) what success has each of these institutions had with running on
the network;
(2)
whether any licensed communication service providers are involved in
supporting the network; if not; why not; if so, which communication
service providers are involved;
(3)
whether the expenditure is still within the budget of R450 million; if
not, (a) why not, (b) why has the Council for Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR) asked for additional funding, and (c) what additional
funding was provided by (i) the Government and (ii) other stake
holders; if so, what are the relevant details;
(4)
whether operational expenditure was included in the original budget of
R450 million; if not, why not;
(5)
what is the (a)(i) cost, (ii) details of the operational expenditure, and
(iii) estimated annual operational cost of this work and (b) how will be
funded?
NW936E
REPLY:
1
(a)
The South African National Research Network (SANReN) is currently
being installed. SANReN’s components will be networks interconnecting
institutions in each of the major metropolitan areas, a national backbone
network connecting the metro networks, and several links connecting
institutions in outlying areas to the network.
The main component (the national backbone) should be completed by
1 December 2009.
Much planning, design and procurement work has
gone into the metropolitan networks that will interconnect institutions
within the cities. These metropolitan network links will connect research
centres in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town.
The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality network is already
complete.
The tender evaluation process for the City of Tshwane
Metropolitan Municipality has been completed and the network is being
installed. Requests for proposals for the Durban Metropolitan network
were sent out, with responses due on 21 August 2009. Discussions with
the Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality are currently underway for the
roll-out of the connectivity to the institutions in this metro.
A number of factors have impeded the progress of the project, but overall,
the project is not behind the scheduled completion date of 31 March 2010.
(b)
Currently 11 campuses are connected to SANReN, and it is expected that
by 1 December 2009, a further 24 institutions in Pretoria, Bloemfontein,
Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban (many with a number of
campuses each) will be connected to the network.
There are regular
interactions with Higher Education South Africa (HESA), and the goal is
still to connect all campuses, including those on remote sites.
(c)(i) Institutions that are already connected and using the network:

The University of the Witwatersrand (the Main, Medical, Business
and Educational Campuses, all situated in Johannesburg).

The University of Johannesburg (the Auckland Park, Kingsway and
New Doornfontein Campuses, all situated in Johannesburg).

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) (the
Satellite Applications Centre at Hartebeesthoek, and the Meraka
Institute in Pretoria).

National
Research
Foundation
(Head
Office
in
Pretoria,
Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory).
A link between the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) and
the University of Cape Town (UCT) is operational, allowing researchers at
UCT to make use of the CHPC supercomputing facilities.
(ii)
As the national backbone network has not yet been completed, it is not
easy to assess the total impact of SANReN on the institutions using it.
However, these institutions now have incredibly fast connections among
themselves, and can transfer large amounts of data among themselves
quite easily. Costs have remained the same, but local connectivity has
been drastically improved (by 50 to 100 times).
Due to SANReN’s connectivity, Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy
Observatory (HartRAO) was able to successfully take part in international
Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) experiments which promoted
the country's standing in the international radio-astronomy field.
The SANReN connection has made it possible to post large volumes of
VLBI data recorded on disk packs at HartRAO to mirror servers in
Johannesburg, to which HartRAO had a 10 gigabits per second
connection.
This rescued several VLBI experiments which had been
threatened with failure owing to a sudden lack of local storage space
related to disk import problems.
The normal incoming international
Internet bandwidth supplied by SANReN to HartRAO is one megabit per
second and costs approximately R15 000 per month.
The SANReN’s Internet access facilitates research by providing excellent
access to the electronically published astronomical journals and rapid
communication and data transfer to collaborating researchers across the
globe. Cost savings from the SANReN circuits have allowed HartRAO to
afford additional international bandwidth in support of these efforts.
2.
SANReN has contracted with both Telkom SA Limited and Neotel, the two
largest licensed communications service providers in South Africa.
Neotel
installed the Johannesburg network for SANReN, Telkom provided the circuits
from Hartebeesthoek to Johannesburg and Pretoria, and has been contracted to
deploy the SANReN national backbone network.
An agreement was entered into between SANReN and Tertiary Education
Network (TENET). Through TENET, institutions have purchased a very highspeed (10 gigabits per second) circuit between South Africa and London on the
recently commissioned SEACOM submarine cable.
This circuit will connect
SANReN to other research and education networks worldwide and to the Internet
generally.
On 25 June 2009, the Independent Communications Authority of Southern Africa
awarded the CSIR licence exemption under the Electronic Communications Act.
This means that the CSIR may now roll out a network without any assistance
from licensed operators if it so wishes.
3.
(a)
The budget allocated under the original three-year contract was in fact
R367,1 million over the three-year period ending 31 March 2010. The
expenditure is still within the budget of R367,1 million.
(b)
Original conceptual planning was to connect 50 sites nationally which
were supposed to be covered by the original budget allocation. Additional
funding had to be requested when it became clear that there were a
number of institutions that had not been included on the original list but
had to be connected to SANReN. Secondly, the first quotes from service
providers for connectivity exceeded the allocated budget considerably.
During the planning and roll-out of SANReN, it became clear that some
institutions not on the original list (because of their proximity to those on
the original list) might be serviced in a cost-effective basis by
incrementally extending the current roll-out plans to them in view of their
proximity to those on the original list.
The SANReN team decided to
extend the network in all cases where this was applicable to, for example,
Tshwane University of Technology, the University of Johannesburg New
Doornfontein Campus (old Witwatersrand Technikon), Cape Peninsula
University of Technology, and the National Zoological Gardens in Pretoria
(one of the National Research Foundation's national research facilities).
On the other hand, there are a number of rural campuses like Limpopo
University that formed part of the original SANReN contract for which
high-speed connections would be incredibly expensive. Typically, such
sites
are
situated
in
very
remote
areas
with
inadequate
telecommunications facilities at their disposal.
Furthermore, there are some institutions in rural areas that were not
included in the original list, such as the Universities of Venda, Zululand
and Fort Hare. Other examples include the Vaal Triangle campuses, and
a number of Unisa campuses, all of which require connection to SANReN.
(c)(i) So far, SANReN has not been contractually awarded any additional
funding. While there is as yet no contract beyond March 2010, the DST
has indicated that further funding of SANReN is under consideration.
4.
(a)
Operational expenditure of the network (operational costs such as hosting
of equipment in data centres and peering fees) was not included in the
original budget.
The funding was to be used primarily as capital
investment to lower the cost of connectivity for institutions.
5.
(a)(i) TENET, a section 21 company, currently purchases connectivity from
telecommunication providers on behalf of its participating institutions. The
current yearly expenditure (through TENET) on research and education
networking, including general Internet services by institutions in South
Africa, is approximately R100 million.
The above figure includes local and international connectivity costs, as
well as other operational costs.
When SANReN is completed, it is
expected that these costs will remain similar in scale, although the
bandwidth that institutions receive will increase at least 20 times for
international bandwidth, and between 50 and 100 times for local
bandwidth. Currently SANReN does not charge participating institutions.
(ii)
According to TENET, approximately R8 million per year is spent directly
on overhead costs (staff, rent, professional services, travel).
(iii)
About R90 million per annum is spent on providing telecommunications
services nationally and internationally using companies such as Internet
Solutions, Neotel and Telkom SA Limited, and providing network
monitoring services.
(b)
The intention is for TENET to recover SANReN’s operational costs from
participating institutions, while providing those operational services. It is
expected that the brunt of operational costs will decrease as SANReN
reaches more institutions, though the exact amounts have not yet been
determined.
17.4.3