Broadband rollout in townships, rural areas
Deputy minister says government facilities to have high-speed internet
THE GOVERNMENT has allocated more than R700 million over the next three years for the rollout of broadband access to townships and rural areas. This was one of the key announcements made during the second day of the AfricaCom conference at the Cape Town International Convention Centre yesterday.
Deputy Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services Hlengiwe Mkhize said in her keynote address that governments have a huge role to play in the ICT sector, especially in initiatives such as broadband rollout and ensuring connectivity across all households and schools, particularly in rural communities.
“In South Africa, it is the government’s plan that while the private sector invests in ICT infrastructure for urban and corporate networks, the government will coinvest for township and rural access, as well as for e-government, schools and health connectivity. This is done through a national broadband policy, South Africa Connect, which provides a framework in which to realise South Africa’s vision that by 2030 a widespread broadband communication system will underpin a dynamic and connected vibrant information society and a knowledge economy that is more inclusive, equitable and prosperous.”
Mkhize said all observations point to the fact that “Africa is the future” and is on track in terms of the digital future.
She said the continent has been hard hit with deadly conflicts emanating from legacies of colonial regimes, including genocides and apartheid. This has had a negative effect on the quality of social, cultural and political lives of the people.
“This has made development move at a very slow pace in past decades. The emergence of the technology revolution enables the government to create information society, deliver services speedily and timeously and to support knowledge economies.”
Mkhize said the telecommunications market is the largest on the African continent and was worth R8 billion in 1993. Today it is worth R157bn. It is projected that by 2020 it will be worth more than R200bn.
She said that last year South Africa had an internet penetration rate of about 47 percent, and in 2013 the ICT sector was worth R468bn, with a contribution of 8.2 percent to GDP.
“Our targets in terms of the NDP are to achieve 100 percent broadband penetration by 2020 and transform 70 percent of all front-line service to e-Service by 2019. The government has invested in the undersea projects coming down the east and west coasts of Africa through its interest in Telkom, Broadband Infraco.”
She said these projects will create eight more terabits of capacity for southern Africa, which is more than 60 times the capacity available for the Safe cable project that preceded the two projects. The two projects connect the continent with the rest of the world at high speeds, and these increased capacities will result in a reduction in the prices of broadband connectivity.