Vote counting is in full swing across the country with results being centralised at the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)’s National Results Centre in Tshwane.
Behind the scenes, there is a highly complex and scalable data network keeping the country updated on a minute by minute basis.
According to statistics at the Results Operation Centre (ROC) data capacity amounts to downloading a standard movie every two seconds.
That’s enough to download all of Netflix’s approximate 14 000 titles three times over in a 24 hour period, or 43 200 movies titles.
The biggest consumers of this data are the media houses, using up to 60% of the consumption, with the IEC making up the rest.
“The largest allocation of data resources is for the multitude of media outlets keeping citizens informed from this hub, particularly the broadcasters who require video and audio to be carried on the network,” says Managing Executive of Converged Communications at Telkom-owned BCX, Prashil Gareeb.
“If we were to add the 400 counting stations and nine Provincial Counting Centres this would be much higher, ” Gareeb adds.
Telkom provides the voice and data network backbone for the IEC to allow for the collation and reporting of votes across the country.
No risk of data shortage
“While the data consumption is significant, South Africa’s National Elections require even more data capacity. We have a highly advanced technology network which can scale up to meet demand without a problem,” says Gareeb.
