Government and industry must form partnerships to increase the uptake of broadband in the traditionally marginalised locations like rural areas and small towns.
This was pointed out by Vitalis Ozianyi, a senior research analyst at Frost & Sullivan, speaking at the ITWeb Broadband Conference, held in Bryanston, yesterday.
Ozianyi observed that though there were initiatives from government to increase broadband penetration in these areas, more still needed to be done if the country is to have broadband for all.
He also stressed that broadband in the country is penetrating at an extremely slow rate because of inadequate knowledge of its service usage and benefits.
“Currently, SA has a broadband penetration of 3% compared to other countries of the world that average a 20.5% rate,” he said.
Ozianyi told ITWeb SA has a long way to go to in catching up with developed countries, in regards to connectivity.
Ozianyi said the country lacks high-speed network coverage and that this is where the government comes in. He noted that government needs to assist the IT industry financially because the cost of initial start up is very high.
He added that spectrum regulation and efficient utilisation are vital components to broadband development.
Further, he said, government is not doing enough for the ICT industry, and could help speed up broadband uptake across SA by completing outstanding issues like local loop unbundling.
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