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Call for Web-enabled set-top boxes

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 04 Jun 2012

Internet connectible set-top boxes are capable of providing entry-level Internet access to SA's economically marginalised population.

This is according to the South African Communications Forum (SACF), which is calling on the Department of Communications to include Internet access as a compulsory requirement in its request for proposals for the supply of set-top boxes. These will come in when the country switches from analogue to digital terrestrial television.

Loren Braithwaite-Kabosha, executive director at the SACF, says inclusion of Internet access in the subsidised set-top box is the single biggest opportunity to increase Internet penetration in SA in the next five years.

“Internet connectible set-top boxes will be vital in replacing the costly PC as an essential Internet access device with simpler more cost-effective peripherals such as the TV as monitor, basic remote controls as input devices, and the ability to connect more sophisticated input and output devices such as keyboards and printers, as demand for such devices, and Internet connectivity, grows,” says Braithwaite-Kabosha.

At analogue switch-off, all South Africans on the terrestrial platform will require a set-top box in order to continue watching television. A subsidy of R2.4 billion will be made available by the government to subsidise the purchase of set-top boxes by economically marginalised citizens.

According to the SACF, 2.7 million homes in SA have access to the Internet. “In today's information-driven knowledge society, the SACF believes that this unacceptably low level of Internet penetration represents a significant barrier to SA's economic and social development, and is responsible for SA's declining ICT competitiveness against its peers in the developing world, including those situated in Africa,” says Braithwaite-Kabosha.

“Inclusion of an Internet access facility in the subsidised set-top box will create a minimum of five million new homes with access to the Internet and demanding Internet services,” she adds.

In its 2011 survey of South African households, Stats SA found that just 9.8% had access to the Internet at home. The International Telecommunication Union estimates that with the spread of smartphones and other Web-enabled mobile devices, the number of households with at least one member able to access the Internet from home has risen to 18%.

“Digital migration represents a once-off opportunity to rapidly accelerate Internet penetration to the poorest South Africans and this will see SA regain a leading competitive position on the continent,” says Braithwaite-Kabosha.

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