The Department of Public Enterprises will monitor Broadband Infraco to make sure broadband prices comes down, and access is expanded into rural areas.
So far, Broadband Infraco has received a total of R724.1 million for establishment and operational costs between the 2007/8 and the current financial years. This is part of a total of R11.8 billion paid out to state-owned enterprises by the Department of Public Enterprises during the same time frame.
According to Treasury's National Estimates of Expenditure, R347.1 million was transferred to Broadband Infraco in the 2009/10 and current financial year, which is set to end at the end of next month.
Broadband Infraco was established when the department purchased full service networks from Eskom and Transnet in the 2006/7 financial year.
The department will monitor Broadband Infraco's price points annually as part of a bid to support increased access to broadband. It will also increase the number of access points to broadband in major cities and under-serviced areas by rolling out the national long-distance infrastructure.
According to a treasury official, Broadband Infraco is expected to be self-funding from now. Between 2006/7 and 2010/11, government funded the expansion of the state-owned enterprise's national long distance network and its participation in the West Coast submarine cable system.
Public enterprises will only receive R4.4 million in the coming year to fund its ICT Broadband Sector programme, which provides “shareholder oversight” over Broadband Infraco. In the 2012/13 financial year, the sub-programme will receive R4.6 million, which will grow to R5 million the year after. Last year, the sub-programme received R142.3 million.
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