Internet access is always a contentious issue in South Africa. We have a total population of nearly 50 million people however only 10.3% of our population have access to the Internet*. For so long South Africa as a whole has been limited, largely because we don’t have the infrastructure and it simply costs too much, but this is all starting to change.
Government’s stance and approach on broadband at the moment is going to change the information age in this country and there are a couple of projects which are really starting to take shape.
There has been a lot of coverage lately about the City of Johannesburg’s broadband network project. This R500 million project aims to provide broadband Internet access to the entire Johannesburg population, catering for more than R3 million people.
Over 180 private sector delegates met at an industry briefing recently with an aim to get clarity on the project scope. The contract will eventually be awarded to one service provider who will in turn provide the following services to anyone in Johannesburg:
- WWW Internet browsing,
- VoIP telephony,
- Television and radio over IP,
- Video-on-demand,
- e-government services,
- Free Internet zones and
- Virtual private networks.
There is no clear idea yet what technology will be used but talks of WiFi, WiMAX and fibre optics are all on the cards. The only major requirement is that connectivity speeds of the 1,644 square kilometre network should be no less than 2Mbps, providing a true broadband solution to the people.
In Durban, the Ethekwini municipality is offering free wireless Internet at 85 libraries. Members can make use of either the library computers or bring their own wireless laptops and get free Internet access. Membership to a library is free and your personal membership number is used to join the wireless network which really makes the whole system secure and easy to use.
Government can eradicate the accessibility and affordability issues we face with major projects like these and as this happens it will shape a new era in Internet usage by providing an invaluable tool to the people that previously hadn’t even heard about it.
* Statistical data provided by:
http://www.internetworldstats.com/africa.htm#za
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Popularity: 3% [?]
May 25th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Broadband internet these days are getting much faster and cheaper too. :*-
August 29th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
broadband internet these days are dirt cheap, there are more and more broadband companies offering cheap service too’:-
October 7th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
the nice thing about broadband internet is that it gets cheaper each year*’.