DOCRRA grows in ideas

The new Dolphin Coast Residents and Ratepayers Association (DOCRRA) committee want to welcome you to a brighter future on the Dolphin Coast with high-speed fibre optic internet and direct links to municipal services.

Sounds great, except that we already have said high-speed fibre optic internet available, so what is different about DOCRRA’s version?

According to committee secretary, Angela McCall, they plan to create an open access network.

“We have met with Linc Africa who are an open access fibre provider. Linc Africa install the fibre at their own cost and then the choice of service provider and connectivity packages remains the consumers choice,” said McCall.

Fellow committee member, Deon Botha-Richards, said the beauty of this network, will be that the community will not have to pay for anything.

“Basically you just go to your internet service provider and say you want fibre optic internet and they hook you up to the open network,” said the very excited Botha-Richards.

When this open network will be available is not yet known, as this project is still in the “idea stage”, according to Botha-Richards.

“We have many great ideas planned for our area, but we need the community’s support. Which is why we need to grow our membership base.”

According to Botha-Richards, they have about 83 members, but there are in fact 100’s in the area who do not know they are members.

“All bodycorporates and estates are members, which means all the people in the estates are members, without necessarily knowing about it.”

To inform current members better and to grow the membership base, a new website has been created, which McCall said will be more than just a source of information.

“We are working on an electronic link which allows the DOCRRA members to be directly connected to the necessary municipal office and hence dealing with the problem directly,” she said.

Furthermore, DOCRRA will be identifying and recruiting suppliers, who will become part of the DOCRRA supplier network, offering their services at special discounts to the members.

Again, this is in the “idea phase”.

The catch is, if you are not a member, you cannot use the website.

For R150 you become a standard member or you can step it up to R200 to become an elite member for the year.

Your membership will be like a Christmas cracker, one big bang and maybe you get something you want, maybe it was just a nice idea.