South Africa is the second-biggest country in the world in terms of wireless data communications options, and local businesses are more concerned with reliability of services rather than prices, says Wireless Business Solutions (WBS) COO Thami Mtshali.
Speaking to ITWeb on the sidelines of the ITWeb Wireless 2005 conference, Mtshali said Australia is the biggest "broadband battleground", with the widest range of wireless data communications options and two million ADSL subscribers.
However, he claimed, SA is not far behind, and local enterprises are scrambling to get connected, irrespective of wireless connectivity prices.
"The biggest question that businesses are asking is: 'Does it work?`," Mtshali said, adding that as reliability of wireless services improves, greater competition will be created within the local market.
"Our data communication options are vast, with ADSL, dial-up, WSB (iBurst), 3G(1), 3G(2) and Sentech. Meanwhile, Telkom is also looking into providing WiMax technology."
But Mtshali believes that, because wireless technology is still relatively new in SA, all offerings still contain some bugs.
"None of them are prefect and there are bound to be bugs in all the technologies. But it depends how service providers handle these. It`s important to keep your ear to the ground," he said.
He noted that a service provider that does not handle glitches efficiently could develop an unfavourable reputation among consumers.
"Service providers often believe that if you spend billions on technology it should work. But it`s not always like that. We also have to be pioneers of this technology."
At this stage, Mtshali claimed, the South African wireless market is not price-sensitive, with businesses seeking primarily to be connected. Factors such as "always on" and speed to deployment are more vital when users are choosing a service provider, he said.
"There is a vacuum in the South African telecommunications market that was left by Telkom. Businesses are now desperately trying to fill this gap."
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