Broadband gaps leave many Africans isolated from markets

Broadband Internet connectivity is becoming increasingly essential for economic development and to take quality education to the rural areas of South Africa and Africa as a whole. While the continent is in need of more broadband, however, it will cost at least $70 billion to start filling the gap. Presently, Africa essentially has no fast, reliable connectivity.

“As much as $70 billion will have to be spent on the continent in the next five years on communication infrastructure, just to begin closing the gap”, says Brandon Doyle, chief executive officer of Convergence Partners.

Even the top performers in Africa lag way behind countries such as Malaysia, according to telecommunications fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation, Steve Song.

On most of the continent, access is either non-existent or overpriced, which means that people are cut off not only from practical gateways to markets, but also from an extremely fertile environment for innovation, he says.

“Unaffordable access means the barriers to participation in civil society, to gaining access to educational resources, to establishing own businesses, or transforming an idea into action, are dramatically lowered.

“Pervasive, affordable access could unleash a torrent of African innovation once everyone has the potential to participate,” adds Song.

The challenges for Africa begin with infrastructure and connectivity, which presently are particularly expensive, and go beyond connectivity – they include aspects such as lack of access to computers and lack of computer literacy in Africa (with South Africa the exception to the rule).

There are, however, reasons to be optimistic with the arrival of six more undersea cables on the continent and the news of investment in terrestrial fibre infrastructure that will help Internet connectivity in Africa.

Cisco and World Wide Worx have found that the number of South Africans accessing the Internet via broadband connections has grown by more than 50% in the past year, brought about by the availability of "around the clock connectivity".

This is one of the key findings of the "Internet Access in South Africa 2010" study conducted by World Wide Worx in collaboration with Cisco.

·  The study shows that most of the growth in fixed line broadband comes from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) upgrading to ADSL. This, in turn, has extended Internet access to more than half a million South Africans working in small offices, who did not previously have access;

·  Wireless broadband, on the other hand, is mainly a result of large companies giving 3G cards to employees who need to be connected while out of the office. Today, many workers in South Africa can perform their jobs in or out of their traditional office spaces;

·  The study also reports on the current and expected impact of the new undersea cables, and explores for the first time the impact of the rollout of terrestrial fibre-optic networks across South Africa;

·  If all current cable projects come to fruition, by 2011, the total capacity of undersea cables connecting Africa to the rest of the world will have increased 150-fold over 2008;

·  The availability of both fibre access and new licences has sparked an 18% increase in Internet access and service providers in South Africa; and

·  The study delves into the impact of the transformation that South Africa is having on Internet access. The convergence of formally disparate services voice, video and data has provided a variety of rich, new experiences for South Africans. The integration of broadcast television, video on demand and telephony services is merely one example. From a data perspective, consumers are using the Internet to create blogs and personal web pages with text, pictures and video. Today’s consumers in South Africa have more options than ever before.

"Wireless broadband is neither cheaper nor better quality, but it is more convenient and flexible, and it changes the way we think about where and how we use the Internet. The combination of new undersea cables and terrestrial fibre-optic networks means we are seeing the emergence of the next generation of connectivity technology, both in fixed line and wireless services,” says Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of World Wide Worx.

Reshaad Sha, senior manager of Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group South Africa, said that “the varied range of services and the demand consumers have started placing on Internet-based application services has fuelled the uptake that we see today. Internet access speeds do need to scale in order to meet the demands of applications and services, specifically those that are video-enabled. The network build-outs that we are seeing in South Africa are positive steps towards the delivery of feature rich Internet services that most developed countries are already enjoying."

It is against this background that the 5th Annual Broadband Summit is to be held on from 29 to 31 March 2010 in Johannesburg. The summit provides insights into the latest regulatory, technological and business developments within the broadband sphere.

South Africa presently has more than five million Internet users, including ADSL and HSDPA subscribers among others. A 2008 report from Internet World Stats on Internet usage in South Africa, comparing users and population, estimated that there are 4 590 000 users out of a population of 43.8 million.