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Municipalities to extend internet use to the masse2007-07-25 Internet usage in South Africa has quadrupled in the past two years, but only 3 million people, or about 8 percent of the population, have access to the service. Nearly two-thirds of internet users in this country access the internet at work, while 31 percent get it from home, according to the latest statistics from the Online Publishers' Association. Recent statistics from technology research company World Wide Worx show that internet access will grow by 3 percent to 3.84 million this year. The study reveals that there will be more than 800 000 broadband subscriber accounts active by the end of the year. This underlines the urgent need for both the private sector and the government to increase access and usage, especially in schools. The municipalities of Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town and eThekwini aim to reduce the gap with wireless hot spot pilot projects already under way in certain areas. The municipalities have said that the internet has become as basic a service as electricity, water or sanitation. Their aim is to lower telecommunications costs, increase access at school and libraries, and improve service delivery. According to a report by BMI-TechKnowledge on digital cities, free or lower-cost broadband initiatives seemed attractive, but the broadband push could lead to services such as video on demand being offered over the same connection. "The problem could emerge that a wireless network may not be able to deliver the high-capacity bandwidth for these services." To meet the bandwidth demand, both Pretoria and Cape Town plan to lay fibreoptic cables. The City of Cape Town's Leon van Wyk said it would lease spare capacity to service providers to offer internet data to the residential market at a lower cost. Tshwane will do the same and is finalising the business model. Only the Knysna municipality has successfully installed its own wireless network infrastructure. Johannesburg is expected to announce the shortlisted bidders for its R500 million broadband network project next month. The bidders include iBurst, which has 150 base stations around the country, and Verizon in partnership with Ericsson. Pretoria is continuing with a pilot project in partnership with Goal Technology Solutions to offer internet, video and telephony services, using power lines, to 130 households in Rooiwal. Source: My Broadband |
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