Cities steal a march on government in broadband roll-out
Improving network access can boost employment opportunities and help reduce poverty in SA, writes Thabiso Mochiko
BY THE time the government completes its broadband national network roll-out strategy, major cities such as Cape Town and Johannesburg will be far ahead with their own similar projects. The government is in the process of finalising a broadband strategy that aims to ensure universal access of the high-speed network by 2020.
In the Electronic Communications Amendment Bill that was published this month by Communications Minister Dina Pule, broadband is described as “an always available, multimedia-capable connection with a minimum download speed as determined by the minister from time to time”.
Broadband is seen as an essential digital resource for accessing basic services and products, and for commerce and job creation. It has the potential to create opportunities and open new markets that allow businesses, particularly small to mediumsize enterprises, to grow.
Governments can also use technology to improve the quality of the healthcare services they offer to citizens. Access to broadband will also enable the take-up of applications and services such as smarttv.
Major municipalities such as Johannesburg and the City of Cape Town have been laying fibreoptic network infrastructure for broadband services.
Privately owned telecommunications infrastructure provider Dark Fibre Africa is also laying fibre in secondary cities such as Rustenburg, Potchefstroom, George and Polokwane to meet the demand for bandwidth in those areas.
The mobile network operators are spending billions of rand to upgrade their high-speed networks to cater for the demand in mobile data. Telkom is spending billions to upgrade its network and offer much-improved broadband connections to customers.
In Johannesburg, BWired, a partnership between the City of Johannesburg and Ericsson, is on track to start delivering highspeed broadband services to businesses and homes in greater Johannesburg by the first quarter of next year. The network will enable the transport of any kind of data, video and voice — including high-definition internet-based television services.
The Western Cape provincial government in partnership with the City of Cape Town recently unveiled its broadband infrastructure project, which includes implementing an extensive and low-priced fibreoptic network that will link the 600 government buildings in the city to one another, by 2014.
Additional capacity will be sold to cellphone and internet service providers, which will be able to provide increased bandwidth at more affordable rates to business, civil society and citizens. But many of the projects are limited to urban areas rather than rural areas. Telecommunications companies, including state-owned entities operating in the sector, have made commitments to assist the government in its broadband project.
Pieter Uys, the CEO of Vodacom, said last week the group would work closely with the government to look at ways to roll out a broadband network in rural areas, including areas that might not be commercially viable at the moment.
According to a study released last week by World Wide Worx, 59% of South Africans have access to the internet. Of those, 27% access it on their cellphones while 5% receive it from the personal computers or laptops.
SA, is a mobile-centric internet market and has leapfrogged the fixed-line era and replaced it with mobile connectivity, hence the general view that broadband access will largely be achieved through mobile network technologies.
Smartphones are steadily becoming the primary device for internet connectivity in Africa.
According to the World Bank, every 10% rise incremental broadband penetration will result in a 1,38 percentage point rise in the gross domestic product growth rate.
This is consistent with the assessment of the international association of cellphone network operators, the GSM Association, that reaching a 20% wireless broadband penetration rate in SA by 2015 will generate R72bn growth in gross domestic product, and about 28 000 jobs in the information and communications technology sector, MTN CEO Karel Pienaar says.
Dominic Cull, the legal adviser of the Internet Service Providers Association, says the bulk of broadband access will be achieved through mobile, which was more cost-effective to roll out than fixed line. But more needs to be done about pricing.