Who`s blocking broadband?

In SA, full broadband utilisation within the telecommunications environment is some time away because of regulatory constraints. But the technology exists, is well proven and a nationwide infrastructure is capable of being installed now.

Martin May, regional director (sub-Saharan Africa) of Enterasys Networks, says that by using existing cable with Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technologies, most urban centres in SA could already receive high speed Internet access services at over one megabyte per second (Mbps).

He says one of the key stumbling blocks to broadband introduction in SA is that local access providers are blocking widespread broadband access.

"The larger service providers currently have a limited amount of bandwidth - no more than 40Mbps - out of the country. With a very little Web content produced locally, most of the desirable real-time Internet content remains overseas.

"Most local service providers would currently be unable to support demands by consumers for several megabits per second of capacity to access services such as Web TV, movies and other cutting-edge applications that are becoming commonplace overseas."

May says the realities of the South African market mean that consumers are being increasingly left behind in terms of technology.

"Locally, we are just getting to grips with ISDN, a technology that is, for all intents and purposes, dead in the US where DSL is widely adopted.

"For the next year or two our access speeds will remain narrowband - up to 128Kbps - while the rest of the world will rapidly move on to broadband, with all the new Web and Internet commerce services to go with it," he adds.