Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
Still in Pursuit of the Fast Lane:
The Crawl to Broadband Freedom
Justin Henley Beneke
University of Cape Town, South Africa
ABSTRACT
South Africa may be renowned for its natural attractions, warm climate and fine wine. But certainly
not for high quality broadband. The country has fallen behind its international peers - both developing
and developed markets - in the race to rollout Internet connectivity. In fact, even within the African
continent, it is neither a leader nor progressive in comparison to its North African counterparts. This
chapter aims to provide a chronology of the major developments in the provision of broadband Internet
services in South Africa, as well as touching on the challenges faced in bringing this phenomenon into
the mainstream. Reasons for the lack of diffusion and adoption of such services point to high end user
costs of the service, a limited geographical footprint of both fixed-line and mobile broadband infrastruc-
ture, as well as a lack of computer literacy and understanding of what broadband is able to offer. The
chapter continues to look at possible solutions including introducing a greater degree of competition
into the market to facilitate downward pressure on prices, provisioning further international bandwidth
through undersea fibre optic cables, as well as the unbundling of the local loop, to further this objective.
INTRODUCTION
is truly pitiful. The pace of development is even
more staggering. Internet penetration stood at five
percent of the population at the turn of the century
and, a decade later, this statistic has just ventured
into double digits. This effectively means that
nine out of tens residents are on the wrong side of
the digital divide. In contrast, leading broadband
nations experience an inverse situation whereby
a small fraction of the country's population isn't
South Africa, situated at the southern most tip of
Africa, has an abundance of good fortunes - natural
beauty, mineral wealth, a warm climate and good
wine. Yet, the digital divide is omnipresent on
these shores - the penetration of Internet access
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