Sentech cannot delay the rollout of its national broadband network in anticipation of better speeds that could result from the digital dividend, says the state signal distributor.
However, CEO Setumo Mohapi says work on this network will not distract the state-owned enterprise (SOE) from its flagship project, which is the country's migration to digital TV broadcasting.
The “digital dividend” is the spectrum that will be freed up once the move to digital broadcasting has been completed, and is expected to allow new services to be offered as a result of spectrum reallocation.
This white space can be used to speed up broadband, expanding penetration into SA's rural areas, which have historically been overlooked, while metropolitans reaped the benefits of wireless broadband.
The National Wireless Broadband Network (NWBN) will see Sentech provide services to rural and under-serviced areas. However, the signal distributor stresses that these broadband services are not a move to re-enter the retail space.
Detrimental wait
Mohapi says although the digital dividend will allow for greater broadband, the market failure in terms of broadband access in rural areas needs to be addressed “as soon as possible”.
He says under-serviced schools represent over 75% of the target market for the NWBN. He adds that the highest deprivation index for schools in SA is in the Eastern Cape, with a figure of 96.62%. Of the nine provinces, six have deprivation indexes of over 90%.
Mohapi says this means millions of students are entering the economy every year without ever experiencing the Internet.
The spectrum to be used for the network is 2.6GHz. Mohapi says “2.6 can be used and, if we wait another three years or so for the digital dividend, then three more sets of students will be going into the economy without ever having broadband access”.
He emphasises that this is why the rollout has to continue even while the SOE is working on digital migration.
“If there is no intervention, our broadband and international position on the continent will continue to fall. We believe intervening through broadband will spur economic development in rural areas and close the economic divide.”
Falling short
Sentech needs R250 million more to complete the network infrastructure. It already has R814 million for rollout over the next three years, but says the total needed is between R1.1 billion and R1.2 billion.
“We are confident of getting the funding from National Treasury. We need another R250 million to complete the last phase,” says Sentech chairperson Logan Naidoo.
Sentech has been in financial dire straits for several years, and last February a task team was appointed to investigate the company's precarious situation. The probe found it was in a “weak” and financially thorny position.
However, the SOE is making progress and presented a three-year strategic plan to Parliament's portfolio committee last month.
SOE partnerships
“USAASA [Universal Service and Access Agency of SA] has a mandate to fund these kinds of projects and we are the infrastructure provider so we are talking to them,” says Mohapi.
He adds that in the development of the broadband plan, Sentech is also working with Broadband Infraco at an operational level. He says there is room for more strategic integration at a policy level.
An option being considered for the network is to continue with WiMax, but the world is moving towards an LTE-like environment, according to Mohapi. “So we've got to make sure we're not disadvantaging the people for the future.”
Schools first
Sentech will start rolling out its long-awaited NWBN by the third quarter of the year.
The network has been on the cards for more than four years, after Sentech finally received funding in 2008, following a 20-month wait.
The entity says the project aims to improve broadband penetration to match SA's comparative counterparts such as India, Brazil and Chile.
Sentech will focus the network on schools, which is where it says the need is greatest. In the first year, it will focus on KwaZulu-Natal and aims to cover 1 254 schools. In the next year, Limpopo will be covered, followed by Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape in the 2013/14 financial year.
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