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Broadband discussions 'come full circle'

Relentless dialogue on the issue of bridging the digital divide has yet to yield results.

Bonnie Tubbs
By Bonnie Tubbs, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 04 Sept 2013
A decade on, and discussions on solving SA's digital divide are still ongoing.
A decade on, and discussions on solving SA's digital divide are still ongoing.

While SA's industry players may be talking the same language they were a decade ago, the country's ultimate goal of ubiquitous broadband has come full circle, says FibreCo CTO Marius Mostert.

Wrapping up the 16th Southern Africa Telecommunications Networks and Applications Conference (Satnac) yesterday, Mostert presented a retrospective scene of the themes that have been covered over the period - illustrating the loop effect SA finds itself in.

The bottom line - after years of dialogue - he says: "We have still not connected the unconnected."

Here are the underlying themes from the decade's string of Satnac conferences - illustrative, says Mostert - of how much still needs to be done in SA for ubiquitous broadband, and through whom:

2002/2003: Solving the digital divide
2004: The future fuelled by communications
2005: Convergence - can technology deliver? Delivering broadband services
2006: Next-generation services - network access is key
2007: Business models at work - the role of governments and network choices for various business models
2008: Communications - any service, anywhere, anytime; political and regulatory contribution and optical and wireless access revolution
2009: Convergence as a 21st Century lifestyle enabler
2010: The future - a society enabled by innovation and applications
2011: The power of social communications - a means to uplift the marginalised and vulnerable, and universal broadband access as an enabler of social media
2012: Enabling an all communicating world
2013: Broadband - a catalyst for sustainable economic development and promoting digital inclusion

"It is clear we have been preaching to the converted, where we should really be preaching to leadership that can address the digital divide - and solve it."

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