Morocco’s
uncapped 4Mbps broadband offering is both substantially cheaper
and faster than the best Telkom can muster – a comparatively
pedestrian 1Mbps and "ridiculous" 3GB cap, according
to international telecommunications consultant and former
INTUG Executive Director, Ewan Sutherland.
Sutherland released his findings and the material
for an African broadband presentation in Addis Ababa this
month to the Communications Users Association of South Africa
(CUASA). Morocco, the African country with an economy less
than one third the size of South Africa’s GDP is the
clear African broadband leader with a broadband offering roughly
four times faster and 20% cheaper than Telkom’s top
line offering. While only slightly more expensive than Telkom’s
top service, Egypt’s uncapped 2Mbps broadband is twice
as fast.
“While we find Mr Sutherland’s
findings sad, the results of his investigation into African
broadband is hardly surprising and South Africa’s poor
performance was, unfortunately, expected,” says CUASA
spokesman, Ray Webber. “Mr Sutherland may not have said
it, but looking at the results of his findings, it is clear
that Africa as a whole and South Africa in particular has
failed to grasp the significance of the global information
economy. If current trends continue we will simply fail to
take advantage of valuable technological, educational and
business opportunities available in an online environment,”
says Webber.
“That said, one does need to take into
consideration that various cellular network operators have
introduced faster wireless data connections, although the
cost of additional data transfer is still expensive. Also,
rumours persist that there is big news on the South African
broadband horizon, although exactly what, or when, new services
will be made available remain a mystery,” says Webber.
It is highly unlikely that any new South African
announcement regarding broadband is likely to even come close
to being perceived as world class. Countries such as Japan
have access to services offering 50Mbps downstream and 12.5Mbps
upstream for Y4 500 (R240). Another Japanese service boasts
a 100Mbps offering for Y6000 (R320).
Singapore, the island country which has pulled
itself out of third world doldrums within the last 30 years
has a 30Mbps broadband service costing SG$ 121.8 (R462) per
month with six bundled television channels thrown in for good
measure. Even so, Singapore's director-general for telecommunications,
Leong Kheng Thai, is worried and is quoted by Sutherland as
saying: “We are still holding our own, but if we don't
step on the accelerator, we will be left behind. So the time
is ripe for us to do the next upgrade.” Singapore is
planning a Next Generation National Broadband Network that
will be capable of ultra high speeds of 1Gbps or more, with
initial provisioning of 100Mbps.
According to Sutherland, currently a “world-class”
broadband service involves taking active steps towards the
provision of fibre or similar high-speed networks capable
of providing broadband at 1000Mbits and significant competition
to ensure affordable pricing, diverse offerings and a range
of complementary services. Countries with world-class broadband
services introduce innovative devices, services and business
models. They also have policies that encourage competition,
have open licensed and unlicensed spectrums and encourage
local loop unbundling. There also tends to be strong government-industry
collaboration, targeted state aid and have strong content
creation industries to support demand.
“The importance of competition in the
provision of infrastructure cannot be underestimated,”
says Sutherland. “For any country to succeed in the
effective provision of widely available and affordable broadband
it is critically important that there is regulated access
to leased
lines and companies should have the right to build their own
infrastructure. In South Africa’s case, there also has
to be open access to the undersea cables,” he says.
“In short, Sutherland’s findings
indicate that from a bandwidth perspective South Africa is
failing miserably,” says CUASA’s Webber. “In
a country where unemployment is rife you would think that
somewhere, somehow, the penny would drop and all those involved
- from policy-makers in government right though to telecommunications
providers such as Telkom would realise that drastic action
is needed to be taken regarding new technologies. One would
think that constant calls from organisations such as CUASA
and other industry players would have had some impact on policy
involving deregulation and competition,” says Webber.
“In addition, some of Telkom’s
‘broadband’ offerings are so slow that they cannot
even be classed as such in an international context while
others are subject to a measly 2GB monthly data cap. When
you add to that the very limited monthly data traffic which
is packaged with most of the wireless offerings as well has
the high cost of modems and other equipment one needs to run
a broadband ‘service’ it’s small wonder
that South Africa’s connectivity levels are so low,”
Webber continues.
“The proof
is in the broadband pudding and unfortunately it looks like
a very small serving indeed. There is simply no way of knowing
just how much South Africa’s failure to capitalise on
new technologies and opportunities available through efficient
broadband services is going to cost the country in the medium
and long-term. It’s much more than a national embarrassment
– the situation represents a complete failure to recognise
economic opportunities and we are all likely to be paying
for that mistake for years to come,” Webber concludes.
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