The Internet has evolved from being a tool that was merely used for research and communication in its infancy, to now becoming a major source of entertainment as well. As broadband speeds continue to increase around the globe, Internet surfers have gone beyond e-mailing and instant messaging.
These days, Web connections are being used to make voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) phone and video calls, to work and collaborate remotely, to participate in video conferences with people located on the other end of the Earth in real time, to stream live radio or music, and to watch television.
And they are not just watching PSY or Justin Bieber's latest music videos, or clips of cute cat or dog antics, either - the likes of which were made so popular by Web video uploading and streaming services such as YouTube, where 72 hours of new videos are reportedly uploaded every minute. YouTube, in particular, is still a wildly popular service, with an excess of 800 million visitors per month watching more than four billion hours of video, but viewers are beginning to branch out beyond that.
"It was as if services such as YouTube merely whet people's appetites. Now, Web surfers are using the Internet to watch fully-fledged television shows, movies and live sports matches from channels around the world," says Jaco Visagie, co-director of Skywire Technologies, an innovative company that provides wireless and microwave-based broadband and telecommunications services to South African consumers and business of all sizes.
"Although satellite television has brought us more channels - both in terms of quantity and variety - we are still at the mercy of the provider's choice of programming and schedules," Visagie continues. "With Internet protocol television (IPTV) - which is television streamed over a broadband connection and watched either on a computing device or a television set - viewers will be able to choose what they want to watch and decide when and where they would like to see it. As we progress further into the 21st Century, industry experts are predicting that this is the future of how television will be consumed globally."
Including in South Africa? Yes, says Visagie. "Even though we are still lagging behind much of the world in terms of broadband penetration and speeds, fierce competition among Internet service providers (ISPs) and accelerated network roll-outs have dramatically slashed data costs, making the Internet far more accessible to a larger amount of South Africans than ever before."
Recently published research by South African research company World Wide Worx substantiates this, revealing that broadband access in the country has more than doubled in the last two years. The study, called "Internet Access in South Africa 2012", reports that the number of broadband subscriptions in South Africa has grown by 128% from 3.6 million at the end of 2010, to 8.2 million by the end of 2012. The report shows that, over the same period, the amount of individual broadband users has surged by 140%, going from 2.8 million to 6.7 million.
Of course, seamless streaming of quality television requires speed. On this front, too, South Africa seems to be catching up. A research study conducted by Akamai Technology, entitled "State of the Internet", concludes that South Africa's average Internet connection speed is accelerating. According to Akamai's Q3 report for 2012, Internet speed in the country has increased by 2.1 megabytes per second - which amounts to 32% growth, compared to a global year-on-year increase of 11%. In comparison, South Korea has the fastest average Internet speed in the world, at 14.7 megabytes per second.
Visagie says with the constant deployment of next-generation network (NGN) broadband infrastructure in South Africa, it is just a matter of time until we reach those speeds. "In order to remain competitive, local ISPs will have to be triple-play compliant and provide their customers with VOIP, high-speed broadband as well as IPTV services over a single broadband connection. Since we also believe that this is the future, Skywire's own wireless and fixed-line solutions already comply with the triple-play idea."
Share