WiMAX the nation, SA urged

By Iain Scott, ITWeb group consulting editor

Johannesburg, 22 Feb 2006

SA has to roll-out WiMAX if it is to be a global competitor in the technology arena, says Canadian technology entrepreneur, venture partner and author Leonard Brody.

Speaking at ITWeb`s IT Confidence conference in Midrand yesterday, Brody said Canada had learned many lessons in turning around from a disastrous financial deficit in 1993 to become the top technology producer in the world.

SA could learn from Canada`s experiences, as well as those of countries like Israel, he added.

"Israel has no natural resources, is bombarded by its neighbours, and yet it built an industry from nothing. You should spend time looking at it."

Offering some thoughts for SA, Brody said government needed to level the playing field. "But when the game is on, it needs to move to the sidelines and let the entrepreneurs play."

The country should also foster venture capital, examining the many models used in other successful countries. "Venture capital here is not true venture capital. I have examined many such deals here and they are early merchant banking deals, not venture capital."

It was also important to foster innovation. "It`s not good enough to replicate what other people are doing," he added.

"WiMAX the nation," Brody said. "The true end of digital divide is access, and people will be using mobile phones to do that." He added that 802.16 and 802.20 WiMAX boxes solved the last-mile problem.

"You can WiMAX an entire city in two weeks," he said. WiMAX - Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access - is a wireless technology providing high-throughput broadband over long distances.

Technology trends

Brody also outlined his thoughts on what the main technology trends of 2010 would be.

Among other things, he foresees the demise of traditional media. "TV, radio, and print cannot compete with the Internet," he said. Although only 3% of global advertising spend was online now, this would shift.

The next few years would also see the rise of participatory journalism, "where you and I are the journalists". The value of old media would lie in editorial.

Brody added that this year is the first in which people will spend more time in the virtual world than the real would, creating more cohesive interest groups through interaction via SMS, multimedia messaging services, instant messaging and others.

There would also be a consumer boom, with a billion new consumers in the next decade and spending power rising sharply in emerging nations. Non-cash micropayments would dominate, and this would be driven by mobile phones.

However, he also sounded a note of caution. The recent Mohammed cartoon issue resulted in Muslim hackers defacing many Danish Web sites. "But more concerning is the concept of hacking into airport systems to bring down planes.

"The next major terrorism incident will take place without the physical presence of a terrorist."