The general consensus in our national trade press of late is that fibre broadband has now well and truly gripped South Africa. While unscrupulous salespeople exist, the average consumer and business person is starting to become educated and is now more likely to challenge ISPs over published contention rates, fair usage policies, quality of service and the like.
This is all good news of course as there are numerous examples around the world of the linkages between increased broadband speeds and the resultant rise in GDP figures. In South Africa, this is just the tip of the iceberg and significant infrastructure investment is still required to meet government's national broadband targets of extending universal access to broadband services by 2030.
Hymax (an EOH company) believe there are some exciting trends that they are able to capitalise on in order for South African businesses and consumers to benefit:
* Video on Demand will play catch-up in South Africa and continue to grow at an unprecedented rate, creating additional impetus and pressure for increased broadband speeds. As already evidenced with the recent launch of Netflix, among other services.
* Cloud solutions cannot be held back. The Cisco Global Cloud Index of 2015 forecasts that data centres will grow threefold between 2014 -2019 with 83% of data centre traffic coming from cloud services and applications. From a regional perspective, the Global Cloud Index predicts that through 2019, the Middle East and Africa region is expected to have the highest cloud traffic growth rate (41% CAGR) Source: Infographic - 2014-2019 Global Cloud Index.
* VOIP will continue to improve in quality as appropriate connectivity technology becomes ubiquitous. This will win back previously disenchanted customers and those voice operators who have maintained traditionally good MOS scores will stand to benefit the most.
* Unified Communications will, on the one hand, improve with better broadband services and advancements in technology deployment. While, on the other hand, any continued pressure on the economy will likely further increase adoption rates.
* We will see additional consolidation in the industry. With increased education and knowledge, Hymax believes that those providers that fudge over contention rates and fair usage policies will be found wanting. Business customers will also increasingly want the option and assurance of obtaining holistic solutions through a single trustworthy service provider.
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