'SA Internet to double in 5 years'

  1. Posted on Wednesday 25 March 2009 - 16:41
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    Peter Griffiths AfricaNews reporter in Johannesburg, South Africa
    South Africa's internet population would double from 4.6 million last year to 9 million in 2014. This is the outcome of a survey by World Wide Worx that was published its report 'Internet Access in South Africa 2008'. The ICT think-tank believes the growth rate of 12.5 percent during 2008 would be sustained over the next five years.
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    South Africa was the first African nation to connect to the World Wide Web, but growth, hamstrung by inefficient government policy and a general lack of competition in the market, has been dismal. Last year’s double digit growth is the first time since 2001 that growth has been above eight percent.

    According to Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of World Wide Worx, there are four major factors that will drive this growth. He believes the introduction of Seacom, a new undersea cable system, “will increase South Africa’s maximum international bandwidth fivefold, and the actual capacity that was available until the end of last year will increase 30-fold.” He believes this will bring prices - based mainly on increased service offerings - would down significantly.

    Secondly, Goldstuck argues that the dramatic liberalisation in the telecommunications market has opened up the opportunity for any of the 600 Internet service providers in the country to self-provide their own networks. While he doesn’t believe even a tenth of these will have the fiscal might to set up networks, “enough of them will emerge to give consumers and business a new world of choice.”

    ADSL

    The third reason is the rapid adoption of ADSL by small and medium enterprises (SME) would. “Our research shows that every SME using ADSL is connecting anywhere between one and 20 additional individuals to the Internet,” said Goldstuck.

    He adds that while cell phone Internet access is growing, and will definitely contribute to the increased uptake of Internet as number four, that this will take several years before a real impact is felt. “The cell phone right now is a very crude device for accessing the Internet and that usability increases will take another few years”, Goldstuck said.

    In conclusion, Goldstuck said that the Internet population of South Africa will grow more in the next five years than it did in the previous 15, an exciting prospect for a country that has until now struggled to take advantage of its early ICT lead on the continent.

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