Major investment in ICT infrastructure is needed in SA, says Thabo Mbeki. The president is punting potential state broadband provider Infraco as the delivery vehicle for this process.
Speaking after the recent Cabinet lekgotla, Mbeki told journalists that, as one of the priority areas for government, infrastructure development is the only way to lower ICT costs in a sustainable way.
According to Mbeki, "it is a matter of common case" that ICT costs in SA are too high and "serve as an obstacle in terms of the economy, society and delivery of government services".
The president noted investments by the likes of Telkom and Sentech are assisting government in its bid to make connectivity a reality for more people.
On government's side though, Mbeki said the legislation for Infraco, government's work-in-progress enterprise body, was being finalised and would allow for more focus on infrastructure and broadband issues.
Not so easy
Worry has, however, been expressed over the creation of Infraco. Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx, believes government control of ICT infrastructure is "of tremendous concern" and has a ripple effect on the impact Infraco can have.
"Government is trying to retain control of an arena that is best served by open competition."
He says industry was disappointed at the last-minute decision that Infraco could remain in government hands, after initial indications that it could be a public private partnership. "Infraco will have to prove itself before anyone will give it the benefit of the doubt."
Leveraging existing capacity
Mbeki said on Sunday that government is looking at leveraging the infrastructure of utilities such as Transet and Eskom to make Infraco a success.
"They have a lot of fibre optic cables, as well as electricity and telephone cables along the railway lines."
Mbeki said, through utilising this reach, government wants to create a fibre optic network linking academic and health institutions across the country to improve access to local and global databases.
"This would be part of the capacity that feeds into broadband capacity and work being done by Neotel in improving accessibility."
Mbeki said the second fixed-line network operator, Neotel, would be able to build on Infraco's work as the state company would invest in the broadband backbone and the operation of Neotel.
Minister of public enterprises Alec Irwin has said Infraco, as the state's broadband provider, will be responsible for the implementation of long-distance backbone capacities between metropolitan centres, while Neotel will be responsible for the implementation of distribution networks within metropolitan areas.
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