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Forum to tackle SA's broadband concerns

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 06 Jul 2015
The objective for the event is to act as a forum for discussion of pertinent issues along a central theme, says Ellie Hagopian, WAPA chairperson.
The objective for the event is to act as a forum for discussion of pertinent issues along a central theme, says Ellie Hagopian, WAPA chairperson.

The First Future Wireless Technologies Forum set for 15 July, in Midrand, aims to tackle SA's broadband rollout objectives.

The Internet service provider industry, technology analysts, civic groups and the Independent Communications Authority of SA will join forces to address the need to roll out better, faster and more affordable Internet access across SA.

Launched in 2014 and hosted by the Wireless Access Providers' Association (WAPA), the forum is a series of collaborative discussions, three of which are planned for 2015.

Ellie Hagopian, WAPA chairperson, says there were two events last year - the first on mmWave and the second on management of licence-exempt spectrum.

She points out the objective for the event is to act as a forum for discussion of pertinent issues along a central theme. By bringing together key stakeholders in a room and spurring discussion and debate of different alternatives around objectives and contentious topics, we can make sure the right questions are being asked, she says.

"One of our desired outcomes is for government and the regulator to have real world context from industry, and another objective is for different industry players to see opportunities for collaboration or innovation that might otherwise be missed."

One of the topics at the upcoming forum will be SA Connect, the country's broadband policy and strategy, which was adopted by Cabinet in December 2013.

The SA Connect policy has a target of 90% of the population connected to the Internet at speeds of 5Mbps by 2020. These ambitious goals can only be achieved through concerted action by telecoms providers, government and entrepreneurs to bring connectivity to the people by bridging the gaps between fixed and wireless networks, as well as between urban and rural networks, says Hagopian.

"The SA Connect goals are ambitious targets, and not reaching the targets should not be considered a failure - rather the targets should be set high enough to encourage dramatic re-thinking of our approaches to collaboration in commercial cooperation across the industry."

According to Hagopian, wireless technologies are extremely important as wireless links can be deployed much faster than fibre. "The two are very complementary, of course, and wireless can lead the way before fibre is laid in areas where fibre is economically viable. In more rural areas, wireless will likely remain the primary method of end-user connection for years to come."

Click here for more details about the event.

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