South Africa's mobile industry, regulator and government are not addressing the high price of data, admits Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) CEO Pakamile Pongwana.
Speaking at the AfricaCom 2015 conference in Cape Town, Pongwana noted it is still debateable that data prices are at a level that is sustainable for each and every individual to access the Internet.
"The price of the Internet is the most fundamental issue that has not been addressed," said Pongwana. Everyone must confront the Internet cost problem, purely because it's a combination of issues, he noted.
"It's not just access to submarine cable infrastructure, it's not just access to satellite capacity; but it's also how we interact with industry and how we enable industry to do what it needs to do in order to make sure the prices are at the right level."
According to Pongwana, infrastructure sharing between mobile operators can be an option explored in terms of providing affordable Internet access because the question is: Is it really sustainable to deploy 4G/LTE as individual operators?
"If we look at LTE and the type of speeds that we want, the economics of scale are not the same as 2G. If you want to attain the type of speeds that you require, you need to deploy more and more infrastructure," he stated.
Pongwana also noted the regulator's role in spectrum allocation to enable increased Internet access. "We need to make sure that more and more spectrum is available because that's what reduces costs to operators."
Internet for all
Commenting on the plan to provide affordable Internet to South African citizens, Pongwana said: "Any plan is good up until the first shot is fired."
Like many other African governments, South Africa has developed a National Broadband Plan (NBP), which aims to ensure universal access to reliable, affordable and secure broadband infrastructure and services by 2020.
Pongwana said government must enable plans to be implemented. "The problem that tends to happen for almost every country that develops a NBP is that it has a good plan; however, most of us do not have the flexibility to revise the plan, rework it, make sure that it is implementable and then follow through. That is the main challenge."
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