The country's mobile Internet landscape is seeing healthy growth, with major changes in access and services coming in the next year or two, says Konstantinos Tzingakis, head of innovations and partnering at Ericsson.
“Mobile Internet in SA is growing without a doubt, in many different areas,” he notes. “As more people get access to the mobile Web with more handsets, better phones and better applications, you'll also see increasingly sophisticated services,” adds Tzingakis.
He says local operators are making great progress in deploying high-speed networks, citing BWired's roll-out of fibre in Johannesburg as an example. The project, a joint initiative by Ericsson and the City of Johannesburg, involves the laying of 900km of fibre to bring greater connectivity to underserviced areas.
However, Tzingakis adds there is still some uncertainty among consumers surrounding what to use high-speed access for. “Most people use their cellphones for calls, so Edge works just as well as 3G. People aren't always aware of what's available and there aren't enough services yet, so we're still playing a bit of catch-up.”
Similar observations were made in a recent World Wide Worx study, which found that while the use of mobile Internet services has exploded in SA, less than half of urban cellphone users with Internet-capable phones use the Web.
The 'mobile Internet in SA 2010' study, released last month, shows almost all urban cellphone users have WAP-capable phones, and a high number use that capability to access Web-based content regularly, although many didn't realise they were doing so.
“Usage of specific applications like Mxit and Facebook Mobile far outpace browsing on the phone, even though both are available on almost two-thirds of the phones used by SA's urban cellular users,” World Wide Worx points out.
According to the survey, mobile Web browsing accounted for 3.36 million users at the end of 2009. The user base for mobile application Internet, which includes instant messaging, downloadable applications, and Internet applications, is estimated at about nine million.
The findings suggest more than half of urban cellular users can access e-mail on their phones, and as many as 60% can browse on their phones. “The implications of these numbers are significant: in one fell swoop, they would turn the SA Internet user base from the 5.3 million reported by World Wide Worx at the end of 2009 to 9.6 million.”
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says many people with these applications on their phones do no use them and do not even know how to use them. “It is clear that the cellphone has the potential to take South Africans across the digital divide, but the phones themselves need to become more user-friendly, and a vast amount of consumer education is needed.”
Tzingakis points out that a divide still exists in SA, as the higher-end market uses their phones for functions which are quite 'gimmicky', while a significant amount of the poorer population uses handsets predominately for calls. However, this group could probably benefit more from the kind of services mobile broadband could bring, he says.
Experimental ground
“Mobile broadband lends itself very well to services that should be a basic right for all, such as healthcare, education, and governmental services,” explains Tzingakis. He says mobile broadband could play a huge role in this sphere, predicting: “In a couple of years, SA will be a very different country as far as this is concerned.”
Reon Coetzee, regional sales manager at Toshiba SA, says mobile broadband is evolving at breakneck speed.
“No sooner had a number of South African network operators announced the launch of 3G and then the upgrade to 3G/HSDP, we hear that the next evolution of mobile broadband - 3GGP/LTE (long-term evolution), which provides speeds of up to 140Mbps, are on their way.”
He explains this will enable consumers to stream high-definition content, download multimedia or connect with friends at much greater speeds. However, he says it's also relevant for business users who will have the ability to run their businesses from anywhere thanks to higher upload speeds inherent to LTE.
“Faster connectivity gives us a world of possibility, one that will unlock the potential of a seamless, wirelessly-connected society, giving consumers the unprecedented ability to share more online and for workers to be more productive no matter where they are,” says Coetzee.
Vodacom confirmed today that it is busy testing an LTE product, trialling LTE equipment with its existing network infrastructure for the first time.
Whether a commercial product becomes available will, however, depend on Vodacom securing the spectrum needed to deploy an LTE network, which will be decided by the Independent Communications Authority of SA in the upcoming spectrum auction.
At the moment, says Tzingakis, the broadband market in SA is in flux, with various users trying different approaches. “Companies are experimenting with various ways to target the market and the network operators themselves are trying to figure out which are the best services to deploy.
It's almost like an experimental ground, with consumers, enterprises, and corporates all in the field trying different things.”
Full steam ahead
According to mobile and wireless industry body the GSMA, mobile operators worldwide will invest up to $72 billion in mobile broadband technologies in 2010. The group said this reflects the continued demand for mobile broadband services and the need for underlying infrastructure, as global HSPA connections reach the 200 million mark.
Tzingakis adds that SA is “in a really in a good place” when it comes to mobile broadband, with decent coverage in urban areas. “For many people, mobile broadband is becoming more part of their lives.”
He says the country will start seeing a significant number of broadband services in the next year or two, both in SA and other parts of Africa.
”The future of SA in this area is looking good; you'll soon see a lot of these services coming in, and in the next five years, they'll begin to mature.”
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