The second phase of government’s ambitious South Africa Connect (SA Connect) broadband project will have an expanded scope to connect communities.
So said Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, minister in the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, during yesterday’sState of the Nation Address debate.
Ntshavheni’s department, which is charged with driving South Africa’s ICT agenda and digital economy development, is overseeing implementation of the broadband project.
She said: “In the next three years, we will connect 44 600 government sites, including schools, health facilities, libraries, Thusong Service Centres, and the traditional authority offices that will be connected through the telecommunications operators. In the same period, we will rollout more than 33 000 community WiFi [locations] and broadband to households.”
SA Connect, first announced in 2013, is the national broadband project identified by government to meet the technology goals of the National Development Plan of creating an inclusive information society.
Due to the magnitude of the project, government determined it should be implemented in two stages.
In phase one, the project aimed to connect schools, health facilities, government offices, Thusong Service Centres and post offices, in eight rural district municipalities, to broadband services. As part of this phase, about 970 government facilities have been connected to broadband at speeds of 10Mbps, the State IT Agency previously confirmed.
With president Cyril Ramaphosa being vocal that SA Connect must be expedited in response to the growing need for South Africans to participate in the digital economy, plans for the next phase of the project were confirmed last month.
Cabinet approved the rollout of SA Connect phase two, saying it will be rolled out using state-owned entities – SITA, Broadband Infraco and Sentech – and the industry.
Yesterday, Ntshavheni said to support economic transformation, her department has revised the plan to include SMMEs and other network service providers, such as internet service providers (ISPs), wireless access providers, mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and other SMMEs in the network industry to participate in the delivery of broadband to communities.
“It is expected that 3 700 jobs will be created, with participation of ISPs, MVNOs and SMMEs. This is part the commitment to ensure all South Africans have access to the internet by 2024 – we are not saying it will start in 2024, we’re saying it’s starting now.”
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