SA needs cheaper, faster alternative telecoms - Hattingh

A survey that was conducted by IDC at the end of 2011 and was recently cited in the media found that South Africans are still slow to adopt VoIP. According to the results of the survey, only 22% of enterprise voice traffic in South Africa occurs over VoIP connections. IDC revealed that, while 52% of local enterprises were using PC-based VoIP solutions, only 17.8% were using a hosted VoIP solution.

"Despite new operators rolling out fibre and WiMAX alternatives, consumers are under the wrongful impression that fixed line still provides the most stable connections and the fastest broadband speeds," says Mondi Hattingh, co-director of Skywire Technologies.

SA lagging internationally

However, a recently released study found that SA's broadband internet speeds are much slower than the global average. Ookla's Net Index placed SA 122nd out of 180 countries, measured according to download speed. The average consumer download speed is 3.42 megabytes per second (Mbps) compared to 12.73 Mbps worldwide, and SA broadband users lag behind places such as Tajikstan, Mongolia and Cambodia, and far behind the fastest broadband providing nation in Africa, Mauritania, which placed 13th on the index.

The other major factor - one which all businesses care about - is cost. In terms of the relative price of access to broadband, SA fared no better during the study. Ookla's Net Index found that while SA broadband speeds are among the slowest, broadband services are among the most expensive too, ranking 58th out of 64 countries. According to the index, the cost of each Mbps in SA is calculated at more than US$37.

On the mobile front, things do not look much better either. Alan Knott-Craig, the CEO of Cell C, one of SA's cellular operators, was quoted as saying that despite the fact that mobile costs have seen a steep decline, SA is still the 98th most expensive country out of 150 in the world and that the cost is still too prohibitive for the country's large, lower economic group.

While all of this might seem utterly discouraging, the news is not all bad, says Hattingh: "Although the statistics show that South Africa still lags behind the rest of the world in terms of broadband internet penetration, the demand for it definitely exists. The country's telecommunications industry is thriving with alternative providers that are deploying their own network infrastructure," he explains. "In Skywire's case, due to our use of microwave-based wireless technology, we can serve customers in those remote rural places beyond Telkom's reach."