SA's broadband quality and penetration is not high enough to meet the needs of the country and its businesses applications.
This is according to a study commissioned by Cisco and conducted by the University of Oxford and the University of Oviedo's Department of Applied Economics. The study looked at the quality of available broadband in 66 countries around the globe.
The study took speed tests from the various countries. It compared the upload speeds, download speeds and latencies for each country. The method found SA's current broadband quality is well below the threshold to support today's applications.
In all of the criteria tested, SA consistently ranks in the bottom 10 countries, alongside several of its African counterparts, including Nigeria and Egypt.
As a region, Africa and the Middle East only managed to improve its broadband quality by 8.8%, compared to Central and Eastern Europe, which improved by a comfortable 26.7%. SA ranks 61 of the 66 countries studied when all the criteria are combined.
Many of the countries that SA uses as a benchmark for studies have far outstripped their requirements for penetration and quality. While Brazil and Mexico have not reached the quality score required to meet the needs of today's applications, both showed a marked improvement from last year's study. Mexico's penetration alone increased by 12% over the year.
SA managed to increase broadband penetration by 1%, from 5% to 6%. Brazil also increased both its upload and download speeds compared to last year, where SA has remained practically stagnant in terms of speed and latency.
The study says that, with new broadband-intensive applications, countries need to focus on boosting local broadband. It says governments need to start developing policies that will encourage broadband penetration and increased speeds.
The study was conducted during May and June, just before international capacity provider Seacom was lit up. Many are hoping that penetration and more affordable access will be increased with the landing of the cable, however; Seacom says it has seen little movement from the South African market.
The Department of Communications recently released its draft broadband policy, which focuses on increasing penetration locally.
One of the key priority areas listed in the policy is to look at lowering the cost of broadband. “Competition will be promoted in the market,” says the document, as a possible solution to the high costs. The document will still follow the official process, including public comment, before becoming set in stone.
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