The Universal Service and Access Agency of SA (USAASA) has been urged to start implementing new projects in the next 12 months to bridge the digital divide.
MD of Access Market International Kobus Liebenberg told delegates at the Convergence Broadcast and Telecommunications Summit in Johannesburg yesterday, that the country must act now to bridge the gap.
"SA suffers from an action gap ... Let`s not continue to stagnate on our actions."
Liebenberg, presenting research undertaken on behalf of the agency, said 15 million people could be classified as in need of basic ICT services. This is based on the assumption that basic telecommunications require an income of between R800 and R1 800 a month.
However, if the agency were to subsidise all 15 million people, the resources of the fund would quickly be wiped out. As a solution, he proposed a competitive bidding arena, as this would reduce the total funding requirements.
Within the next four to six months, he recommended a strategy for action compiled for USAASA being accepted and work on implementation started. This would include prioritising the neediest areas, and determining the initial amount of a subsidy.
New initiatives and a support framework for current endeavours should be developed, he said.
In the next six to 12 months, he said he would like to see research being refined to better clarify needy areas, as well as projects being rolled out. Additional sources of funding should be tapped into, including international organisations, he said.
Over the long-term, USAASA`s projects should be incorporated with other government initiatives, such as its growth plan, Liebenberg said.
Most needy
Priority areas in need of all forms of ICT services are the old Transkei region, the Eastern Cape, and central KwaZulu-Natal, said Craig Schwabe, GIS centre director at the Human Science Research Council.
He said ascertaining which areas are most needy is based on population density figures. While both the North West and Northern Cape are also in dire need of intervention, these areas are less populated.
The information, collected at municipal level, was compiled in order to assist the agency in determining priority areas in which to concentrate its actions. Forty-eight priority areas were identified in the research.
The research revealed a concentration of landlines in major cities, based on census data. Other forms of ICT, such as Internet access, cellphones and computers, are also mainly concentrated in metropolitans, he said.
However, neither Telkom nor Sentech assisted in the research, as both failed to provide data to ascertain ICT penetration at municipality level, he said.
Scarce services
Telecentres and cyberlabs - which are telecentres based at schools - provide services to just under 300 people a month at each centre, said Dr Anina Maree, director at African Response.
Of the people who use the centres, 88% are from the surrounding community and most are under the age of 50.
However, 49% of users do not have access to PC training as this service is simply not offered. In addition, most centres do not offer technical or Internet training. Most centres have more than 10 computers and more than one phone, and 34% have Internet access, said Maree.
Moreover, most centres either have only one or no fax machine, photocopier and scanner. Generally, the centres also do not have pay phones available, and do not sell airtime.
The majority of the centres are new, with most of them being under three years old. Only the telecentres are generating revenue, which does not seem to be more than R1 500 a month, she said.
Maree recommended the centres increase the range of services they provide, and capitalise on the offerings they have available in order to be more self-sufficient.
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