Being part of the South African ICT community leaves one with the distinct problem of not knowing whether to laugh or cry - or more accurately, one has to laugh or else you will cry.
Just two months after the World Economic Forum`s Networked Readiness Index pointed out that, despite improving its standings in the index from 37th place to 34th place, SA has lost the top spot on the continent to Tunisia, SA`s battered image has been dealt another blow.
This month, Ethiopia announced the official launch of its next-generation broadband service, featuring offerings that include broadband Internet, VSAT and multimedia services as part of a concerted effort to place the East African country firmly on the information highway by providing a strong ICT infrastructure in order to bring technology to all its people.
Did I hear some local ministers mentioning the phrase "bridging the digital divide"?
Yes, Ethiopia has outdone the mighty SA in terms of that clich'ed concept, spending plenty of money and collaborating with top companies to ensure it has the kind of infrastructure in place to take the country to the next level.
This from a nation that, much like us, has a monopolistic telecoms provider, in the form of the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation which has nonetheless committed itself to providing affordable access to all the people of the country.
Yes, Ethiopia has outdone the mighty SA in terms of that clich'ed concept, spending plenty of money and collaborating with top companies to ensure it has the kind of infrastructure in place to take the country to the next level.
Rodney Weidemann, telecoms editor, ITWeb
Naturally only time will tell whether these "affordable" prices will be truly affordable to the majority or will in fact be closer to Telkom`s prices, which are supposedly comparable to the best in the world, despite the fact that MyADSL recently conducted a survey showing SA`s broadband prices to be more expensive than such ICT luminaries as Brazil and Egypt.
In fact, Telkom`s prices are so competitive that the survey showed the monopoly`s unshaped DSL512 service would only cost the average South African citizen 105% of their monthly salary, were they to opt for this service.
I can almost hear my friends at Telkom starting to shout that the DSL512 service is high-end and is not aimed at the average consumer, so this comparison is skewed against them from the outset.
Except that one has to consider the fact that the average Ethiopian is poorer than the average South African, and yet the newly launched broadband infrastructure in the East African nation should have an average speed of 2MB, or roughly four times the speed of Telkom`s high-end offering.
So the question is: why is it not possible for SA to have speeds comparable to those in Ethiopia? Why has Telkom not provided local Internet users with higher speeds?
Oh, I forgot - pretty soon even our loveable minister of communications won`t be able to prevent the advent of true competition in this country, so the only capitalist thing to do would be to try and squeeze every possible drop of blood - sorry, I mean every cent - out of the abused consumers before competition brings the prices crashing down.
After all, isn`t that the African way?
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