South Africa is falling further and further behind international levels of broadband uptake, with 82% of people in a recent online poll describing local ADSL uptake as "pathetic".
According to the MyADSL Web site, comparisons with international broadband uptake levels show that SA is far behind in this respect, with just 0.002% of South Africans having broadband access, compared to 10.5% in the UK and 7.7% in Australia.
"At the recent regulatory hearings into Telkom`s ADSL pricing, the monopoly told ICASA that if comparisons were to be made, Australia was probably the most likely comparable candidate, but a look at the comparative figures shows how far behind we are," says Rudolph Muller, MyADSL founder.
"Telkom appears to want credit for signing up 17 000 new subscribers since its price reductions in March, but this is a drop in the bucket compared to our country`s population. Worse still, in Australia, over 200 000 new broadband customers were signed up in the same time frame."
Muller claims that with the current take-up rate it will take SA nearly 50 years to reach the same penetration percentage as that of Australia.
"It is regrettable that Telkom is displaying classic monopolistic behaviour by showing massive profits while their ADSL prices remain many times more expensive than their international counterparts," he says.
"A standard 512 ADSL service in SA costs more than 50% of the average income of a citizen, so it is not surprising that 85% of broadband users described Telkom`s net profit of R6.8 billion as `bad news for SA consumers` in a recent poll on MyADSL."
According to Muller, communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri has pointed out that the sluggish uptake of broadband in SA is hurting the economy by prohibiting some significant international investments.
"It is high time that the Department of Communications does something to improve the broadband situation in order to make things more competitive, as broadband Internet uptake is far too important for SA to be left in the hands of a monopoly."
Broadband for Joburg
Meanwhile, MyADSL has also reported that the City of Johannesburg has launched the 'Joburg Broadband Strategy`, a project aimed at improving access and reducing the cost of communications for the people of the city.
The aim of the venture is to remove the constraints to broadband and wireless growth while harnessing the potential opportunities within the ICT sector and stimulating competitiveness within the broadband and wireless arena to help grow the economy.
ICT market research consultancy BMI-TechKnowledge will assist in the development of a broadband-enabled 'Smart City`, which will form part of Johannesburg`s key initiatives for its 2030 vision.
BMI-T is exploring options regarding the role of the City of Johannesburg as either a provider of resources, a provider of infrastructure or as an intermediary.
In other ADSL news, Internet service provider 59.co.za has announced that as of 7 June it has replaced its 6GB and 9GB capped accounts with a 30GB capped account for R499 per month.
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Telkom drops ADSL, data prices further
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