The total number of South Africans accessing broadband Internet has risen by more than 50% over the past year, and by 2015 there will be more than 10 million Internet users in the country.
This is according to the 2010 Internet Access Report, released by World Wide Worx, in collaboration with Cisco.
Wireless broadband has leapfrogged ADSL, growing almost three times as fast as fixed-line broadband, said World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck during yesterday's media briefing, in Sandton.
The company's research found the number of mobile broadband Internet subscribers grew 88% in the past year, while ADSL connections increased by 21%. This means there are 930 000 wireless broadband subscribers, versus 630 000 ADSL users.
Goldstuck explained that corporates are fuelling the growth of mobile Internet, because companies of all sizes are handing out wireless 3G cards to their employees as a complement to their fixed-line connections to drive the mobile workforce.
High-speed cables
The new international undersea cables and the roll-out of the terrestrial fibre-optic networks are major drivers for Internet growth. The report predicts that, by 2011, the total capacity of undersea cables connecting Africa to the rest of the world will have increased 150-fold over 2008. At the end of 2009, the capacity was 1 690Gbps and by the end of this year it will be 5 410Gbps, and a year later it will reach 14 770Gbps.
“New cables are like the opening of sluice gates on a dam,” said Goldstuck. “In addition, the new national fibre grid laid by MTN and Neotel goes live this year. It will start feeding in on the national grid and to Internet access providers, and this will start to make a dramatic impact on broadband this year.”
Without giving an exact timeframe, Goldstuck said SA is still far from realising Long Term Evolution (LTE), the next generation of mobile connectivity. “The assumption two years ago was that by 2010 SA would have LTE; however, it will be coming much later than expected.”
SA still lags in Africa
Reshaad Sha, senior manager of Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group for emerging markets, said that - while SA has the fourth highest Internet usage in Africa and in terms of Internet penetration - SA ranks in 10th position, behind countries such as Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco.
According to Sha, mobile broadband has become the primary form of Internet access in SA, due to the proliferation of mobile phones over desktop PCs. He added that the biggest hurdle to the growing smartphone adoption is that the devices consume 20 times more data than a regular Internet-enabled phone.
“As video traffic will dominate Internet usage over the next five years, data revenues will continue to remain the growth engine for service providers. The demand for mobile broadband is increasing as consumers use significantly more data.”
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