There is still work to be done in removing outstanding bottlenecks if SA is to achieve a fully connected society by 2020.
This is according to undersea cable company, Seacom, which notes that while wholesale pricing has dropped dramatically and the end-consumer continues to get more bandwidth more affordably, SA is still far from achieving broadband for all.
The company says government and ICASA are critical players in unlocking further growth through exploring a range of unified initiatives, from private-public partnerships and rural development mandates, to spectrum allocation and local loop unbundling.
Local analyst firm World Wide Worx, in a recent report, concurs, saying governments have a central role to play in ensuring universal access to Internet services.
The firm says the Internet user base in SA grew 25%, from 6.8 million in 2010, to 8.5 million at the end of 2011 - a development underpinned by “the impact of both smartphones and ordinary mobile phones”.
The International Telecommunications Union also advises governments to take urgent action now to support broadband growth. Hamadoun Tour'e, the union's secretary-general, says accelerated fibre roll-out and greater spectrum availability will be imperative if network bottlenecks are to be avoided.
Aidan Baigrie, head of business development at Seacom, says while SA has seen spectacular growth in submarine capacity over the past two years, this has not been the case downstream with the backhaul and last mile infrastructure players.
“As a result, there is a disconnect between the ample supply of affordable international connectivity to the shores, and the supply of affordable bandwidth to both rural and city-based end-consumers inland,” Baigrie says.
According to Seacom, submarine connectivity accounts for around 90% to 95% of the distance a byte of information travels, yet is only a fraction of the total cost of a service to the consumer.
Backhaul and last mile connectivity, on the other hand, is scarce and as such is priced at a premium, traditionally providing healthy margins for operators and infrastructure providers that have these assets, it adds.
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says based on the findings in the 'Internet Matters' report, it is recommended that regulators and government policy-makers apply the greatest urgency to removing obstacles to the Internet access evolution in SA.
He recommends government allocate spectrum for high-speed wireless access, in particular 4G, or long-term evolution (LTE).
Goldstuck says government must also ensure that licensing of new broadband technologies, such as LTE, be treated with urgency, so SA is not seen to be falling behind in the roll-out of technologies that make the Internet more efficient and effective.
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