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WC residents feel pinch of Internet costs

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 05 Feb 2016
Western Cape residents spend 20% of their monthly salaries on Internet access, much more than the standard average of 5%.
Western Cape residents spend 20% of their monthly salaries on Internet access, much more than the standard average of 5%.

The average Western Cape resident spends 20% of their monthly income on Internet connectivity.

This was revealed in the Western Cape's latest research report on the Internet habits of the province's residents, which says the average monthly income spend on Internet is 20.1%.

Alan Winde, economic development MEC, says this is more than the monthly average stipulated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The ITU stipulates that spending anything more than 5% of monthly income for Internet access is not affordable.

South African mobile services costs ranked among the highest in the world, says Winde. "Nationally, users spend 24.7% of their income on mobile services, which includes data and voice. In the Western Cape, the average is 20.1%.

"This is why we have selected bringing broadband to residents as one of our game-changers," he adds.

The research was commissioned by the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism. It was conducted by Research ICT Africa, in partnership with the universities of Cape Town and the Western Cape. In total, 2 271 households and 3 955 individuals across the province participated in the survey.

"This research now provides a baseline for us to track the effect of our broadband rollout programme. We placed special attention on getting to grips with three of our most vibrant, yet previously under-served, areas so that we are able to see how access to broadband is changing lives and business opportunities for those residents."

The report also found the majority of residents, at 91.4%, used their mobile phones to connect to the Internet. ADSL was the least common way for people to connect. In Mitchells Plain, only 3.6% of users accessed the Internet using ADSL. In Khayelitsha, this figure was 0.9%.

According to Winde, the Western Cape government's public WiFi programmes in Delft, Atlantis and along the Garden Route, have so far connected 123 000 residents to the Internet.

"Our survey found that 60.3% of residents are using their phones to search for health-related queries. We've been seeing shorter queues at our clinics, which suggests more residents are indeed turning to the Internet for basic medical questions. This is saving them travel money and lost time at work. It's also reducing demand on stretched government medical services."

Meanwhile, the Western Cape government has reiterated its commitment to invest more than R2.8 billion to provide residents with access to the Internet.

"We are investing R2.89 billion in the rollout of broadband to Western Cape residents. This year, 2 000 government sites, including schools, libraries and health facilities, will go live. Our goal is that every resident of this province has access to affordable Internet," notes Winde.

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