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Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille. Photo: Jason Boud
South Africa has been left flat-footed by the rest of the world in terms of internet usage and connectivity after having been on par with the likes of North America, Europe and Australia.
As a result, the Western Cape provincial government and the City of Cape Town have now set themselves targets to have citizens in every town and village in the province get access to affordable broadband infrastructure at a minimum network speed of 1 000Mbps (megabits per second) by 2030.
As part of their infrastructure milestones, the province and city now want all government buildings in the province connected by 2014. And by 2020, every citizen in every town and village are to have access to affordable broadband infrastructure. People in the metropolitan area have access to affordable broadband infrastructure at network speeds in excess of 100Mbps.
Presenting the Western Cape Broadband Strategy and Plan during Tuesday’s mayoral committee meeting, IT consultant Nirvesh Sooful said a lot of work still has to done in terms of information and communications technology (ICT).
“ICT is an accelerator of economic growth. But the plan is going to the provincial cabinet for formal ratification. As we’ve developed in this 20-year period, South Africa has largely remained the same while the rest of the world has moved ahead. Some have caught up to South Africa and moved ahead.”
In his presentation Sooful said the province’s vision was that of “a Western Cape where every citizen in every town and village has access to affordable high-speed broadband infrastructure and services, has the necessary skills to be able to effectively utilise this infrastructure”.
“We are being left behind by the rest of the world. We need to get our act together, we need synergy,” Sooful said.
He said priority projects have been identified such as connecting households and “plotting” 8 000 points of government in the province.
Also in the pipeline is the installation of “wireless mesh” for Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain which will need R45 million in funding and will cover an area of 72km2.
He said Mitchells Plain and Gugulethu were furthest behind in terms of the household internet distribution gap in the city, while the Southern Suburbs had the highest household internet distribution.
For this financial year, the city has committed R11.2m for its broadband programme with the provincial government putting aside R18.5m to connect provincial buildings.
For the 2012/13 financial year, R45m has been budgeted, but with a R25m shortfall needed to complete the core network not being budgeted for.
Mayoral committee member for corporate services Demetri Qually said ICT was as important an item of infrastructure as roads and seerwage works.
“The city and province have been working well together and there are exciting possibilities,” Qually said.
Mayor Patricia de Lille said the city would discuss where to get some of the funding to make up the R25m shortfall.
“But we can’t underestimate the value of broadband. We will certainly find the money,” De Lille said. - Cape Times
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Mielie, wrote
Why can you stream video over your "Drifta" 247 for a whole month @ R36 via the Cellphone networks, but it cost 5 arms and 20 legs to use the same amount of data to browse the internet on your PC? Why can you browse unlimited internet on your Blackberry, but they can't afford us the same on your PC? The whole communicationn industry only has 1 thing on their minds - TO MAKE MONEY - They know they have us between a rock and a hard place ....
Gav CT, wrote
Interesting to note that the Americans have had line speeds of 100Mbps for about 8 years now directly into their houses. We on the other hand should have achieved this by the year 2020.....only 16 years later? WOW.....what progress?!? Instead of messing about with this the government should be concentrating on cellular technology as it's estimated that more people will be accessing the web via cellphone than via desktop by 2014. Perhaps this is just way TOO much forward thinking for them?
Anonymous, wrote
Alot can happen in the mobile space before 2020. City getting involved in affordable broadband is a total waste of tax payers money. Lobby against the existing mobile providers to improve their packages. In return mobile providers could look to LTE (4G) to fill the speed gap, although HSPA+ is theoretically all we will need for now.
Kobie, wrote
Politicians all have fancy plans and very few are executed. If they can pull this off it will be a giant step forward!!!!
firepronewirelessmesh, wrote
What is it going to help the flats when they have bandwidth in 2020,when the shackfires come - they will burn all the devices and illegal power connections that make connecting possible... No Toilets before bandwidth - Great - needed development prioritised, so you may be able to blog more about more fires and floods and flowing shit.
thecynic, wrote
So one is meant to get excited about the fact that in 18 years time we will finally be able to enjoy broadband that the rest of the world is experiencing today?? The main issue is that we have the infrastructure available, however, the corporates with vested interests such as Telkom and the cellular companies etc. see it fit to continuously rip off consumers by colluding to charge exorbitant prices for services which most developed (and some developing) countries make affordable to its' citizens. So while the government sits back and twiddles its' thumbs the afforementioned corporations are allowed to continue to stuff its' pockets with impunity and to the detriment of the average citizen. And so we slip further and further behind the rest of the world...
mark, wrote
1000 by 2030. In England they are already using 20 000 and are already looking at speeds of 1 000 000this year
Geyser, wrote
Who cares what happens in 2030? Why wait 18 years when all the technology is already here to implement cheaper high speed broadband? Break up the cartel and let there be free competition.
Riaan, wrote
Anonymous, wrote
Aran. You clearly can't read properly. Maybe you should get your facts straight. They clearly say that this is something they want to achieve for Cape Town by 2020
Aran, wrote
What nonsense is this! "People in the metropolitan area have access to affordable broadband infrastructure at network speeds in excess of 100Mbps." I live smack in the middle of cape town CBD and I have to fork out near R900 for a 1mb line (including telkoms rediculous landline rental which i dont even need). And I barely get 700kbit!!! Theres no such thing as 100mb internet for home use in this country, nevermind "IN EXCESS OF". Please get your facts straight!!!
Ian, wrote
Forgive my ignorance, but when has South Africa ever been on par with North America, Europe and Australia in terms of connectivity and internet usage? As far as I can recall, Telkom has always been a stumbling block to keeping us on par with the rest of the world.
Hilary, wrote
Thank god, they are listening. What Cape Town needs is to upgrade the metronet to 100MBPS and set up the whole of Cape Town with free internet. Houshold s that want faster should be able to go to thier provider and pay extra for the 100mbps just was we pay now for the creaky slow 345678 if its available now. The more people that have internet acces s the better the school and educational results will be and the income will jumo accordingly. All the people need is a little help from The City. The tax payers of Cape Town paid for that optic network , its only right we should have some use of it. Especially those who need it the most - schools, students, pensioners, hospitals, clinics and everybody who is unemployed or running a smallmicro business.
Anonymous, wrote
where do i sign up for 100mbs internet? telkmo dsl @ 10mbs but I barely get 3mbs from my line...
JFT, wrote
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