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Broadband has seen unprecedented growth in South Africa over the past few years. More affordable hardware, competition in the marketplace and increased penetration has allowed more and more people to take advantage of broadband for their Internet needs. It seems as if South Africa has a rosy future as far as broadband is concerned but is it really as wonderful as we believe it to be?

 

Predicting what will happen next as far as South African broadband is concerned is a difficult task. A number of important issues need to be considered to project the growth of broadband in South Africa. These include factors like cost, perception, competition, regulations and market saturation to name but a few. Generally it seems South Africans want to be connected and it is no secret that the government is also pushing to increase the penetration of broadband into all South African communities through the drafting of the National Broadband Policy.

 

Despite these positive noises from government a recent Broadband Quality Study, conducted by the University of Oxford and the University of Oviedo’s Department of Applied Economics, shows South Africa scoring amongst the lowest of the surveyed countries in broadband development and quality.

 

South Africa’s Broadband Quality Score (BQS) is only 21 – much lower than the international average of 31 from the other 66 countries included in the study. This score is calculated using download, upload and latency values of broadband in a given country. This means that South Africa is below what is known as the ‘application threshold’ and that the majority of South Africans with broadband access are not equipped to use the Internet to its full potential.

 

According to the survey, “Typical applications for today include web browsing, social networking, music downloads, basic video streaming and video chatting, standard definition IPTV, and enterprise-class home offices. Future applications include consumer telepresence for communications, healthcare and education, high-quality video file sharing and streaming, high-definition IPTV, cinema-quality live event broadcasts and advanced home automation.” And as far as these applications are concerned, South Africa’s broadband is severely lacking.

 

South African broadband is in dire straits. It is hoped that the new SEACOM cable completed in July and the drafting of the new National Broadband Policy by the Department of Communication will help to remedy the situation in South Africa. One thing is certain; if South Africa wants to reach its goal of penetrating every South African community with broadband Internet, something needs to be done – and soon.

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