Despite the sluggish changes in the regulatory environment, SA's broadband adoption rate is accelerating, exceeding the 3% growth that was predicted last year, delegates heard at the Broadband Summit, in Sandton, yesterday.
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck said SA saw 5% growth in Internet adoption last year. This was due to a strong uptake of ADSL services by small and medium enterprises, he said.
Goldstuck forecasts that the Internet user base will grow 8%, to 4.4 million subscribers, in 2008. The number of experienced Internet users will grow to 3.28 million in 2008 and 3.5 million in 2009.
Broadband subscriptions will reach 1.37 million in 2008, with ADSL connections reaching 558 000 in 2008 and wireless connections reaching 812 000, he added.
He noted that some of the ADSL subscribers use wireless connections as backup, which reduces the number of unique broadband users to 1 070 000, not 1 370 000 as expected.
"SMEs have discovered that dial-up Internet is more expensive than ADSL," he said. Goldstuck also noted that the threshold at which dial-up becomes costly is when a user is online for at least 16 minutes per day.
Bashing ICASA
Goldstuck commented that growth in Internet adoption would have been much stronger if the South African telecoms regulatory environment was more enabling.
MyADSL founder Rudolph Muller said the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) was sluggish in issuing value-added network service providers (VANs) with electronic communications network service licences. This would allow VANs to self-provide their infrastructure.
ICASA has also been slow to grant spectrum to ICT players, again hindering their potential for growth and ability to offer competitively priced products and services, he said.
Muller compared SA to Morocco, which has 6.1 million Internet connections, thereby connecting 19.85 people per 1 000, while SA is at eight people per 1 000.
"It's shameful! It's amazing that in the early days of Internet history, SA was ranked 14 in terms of Internet connectivity," he said.
Even Tunisia, which has a less thriving economy than SA, has a greater penetration rate, connecting 12.68 people per 1 000, he said.
ICASA says the public consultation process on how WiMax spectrum will be allocated has been completed. The process will be finished by the end of March, says spokesman Sekgoela Sekgoela.
ICASA had to wait and consider the outcomes of the International Telecommunications Union World Radio Conference, relating to harmonisation of spectrum issues and technologies, in particular WiMax, before finalising the process, he says. The conference took place at the end of last year.
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