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A little less conversation

It's time to take action in order to address SA's lacking broadband capabilities.

Simon Dingle
By Simon Dingle, Independent writer, broadcaster, consultant and speaker.
Johannesburg, 14 Feb 2012

My ADSL is down again. This is such a common utterance in South Africa that it doesn't receive much attention. I've been able to say it countless times in the last six months. I've just about given up trying to have a stable Internet connection at home - and believe me when I say I've tried every available option. If you'll forgive me the myopic introduction, it's time to redress our broadband status quo. We've entered another era of waffling in this regard and we desperately need action. So let's go there. And I'll try not to sound too whiney.

I've just about given up trying to have a stable Internet connection at home.

Simon Dingle, contributor, ITWeb

According to Ookla's Net Statistics, which I often quote as the most accurate numbers available for global consumer broadband, South Africa is now sixth on the African continent in terms of average download speeds. We might still be an economic leader on the continent, but in the telecoms stakes, we're lagging now.

The fastest download speeds for African consumers are found in Ghana, at the time of writing. Libya is second, followed by Rwanda, Angola and Kenya. Of course, there are other realities in those countries that we certainly aren't aspiring to - but we'd love their broadband.

Broadband below par

In terms of all 174 countries that Ookla tracks, South Africa is number 108. More disappointing than that is the fact that we were making progress until late last year. South Africa jumped from 107 on the list in 2010 to 89 on the list in 2011. By the end of the year, however, we had slid back down. If one looks at the numbers, South Africa made rapid progress in the months following the commercial launch of Seacom, and then things stagnated while the rest of the world - including many of our African friends - continued to sprint ahead.

What really worries me is the lack of action on the part of our leaders. Were it not for a private-sector led court case in 2008, we would still have a highly regulated market in South Africa, where Telkom's monopoly would be enforced and the only other self-provisioning network would be Neotel. If Altech hadn't kicked down the door for operators in South Africa by taking the department of communications to the High Court, nothing would have changed. And then where would we be?

South African politicians still don't get free market economics. They love waxing lyrical about telecommunications and the potential of broadband to transform society - but when it comes to actually doing anything to stimulate the market, they clam up.

Our new minister of communications, Dina Pule, is talking the talk. She recently echoed the sentiments of her predecessor, Roy Padayachie, at a meeting with the media in Pretoria. She emphasised again that the DOC, together with the ICT industry, has committed to delivering 100% broadband penetration in South Africa by 2020.

According to Pule, we took a big step towards this goal just by signing an agreement saying we would do it. She said establishing the kind of broadband infrastructure the country needs will require significant investment and can only be achieved through a partnership between the public and private sectors.

Fantastic! That's exactly right. But what are we doing about it? Where are these partnerships? It's all good and well to make operators sign an agreement, but how is the DOC enabling them to act? And what of the regulator?

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is still dragging its feet in terms of local loop unbundling. There are realities concerning Telkom that make forcing the matter a risky business. But we're just not doing enough. Whenever ICASA is asked about their commitments in terms of unbundling, the answers sound like they were scripted by circus clowns.

Yellow brick road

Spectrum allocation is another fantastic talk shop. In December last year, ICASA again revised its plans, shifting focus to the 2.6GHz and all-important 800MHz frequencies, and aligning their objectives with global best practices. And rightfully so. It puts some awesome paving on the path, but we're yet to take any steps down it. More talk, more papers, more good decisions in principle. No action.

This brings me to the inevitable discussion of digital migration, and government again missing its deadlines. We were supposed to switch to digital terrestrial television (DTT) in April this year. But, says our minister, this is more likely to be postponed until the third quarter. We've missed the boat. Again. Any bets on whether we'll see the migration happen this year?

Fortunately, I'm going to expend my word-count for this column before inducing a hernia.

The time for talk is over. We need action now. The regulator and the Department of Communications can spare us their discussions until they have something to show. Better yet - they should empower private sector players to take action for them. Let's see these partnerships we've now been told, yet again, that we so desperately need.

And our need is desperate. Small and medium businesses in South Africa are being severely compromised by being forced to use inadequate - and mostly dysfunctional - consumer connections. We have massive issues in rural healthcare and education that can be tackled with broadband. It needs to happen now.

There really is light at the end of the tunnel - the problem is we keep extending the tunnel. And it's costing us. So for goodness sake let's get on with things. And can someone please, please, please come and fix my ADSL line?

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