National Broadband Plan Sought to Spur South African Internet

A Johannesburg forum Tuesday will launch a campaign to make broadband a national priority in much the same way as the U.S. initiative BB4US formed before Barack Obama and the new Congress were sworn in to give them a policy framework, the groups said. South Africa is on the “cusp of a major broadband infrastructure rollout” as, among other things, the SEACOM submarine cable comes online to link the country to India and Europe (CD, Feb 19 p7), they said. Behind the effort are the Association for Progressive Communications, South Africa Connect, the Southern African NGO Network and the Shuttleworth Foundation.

South Africa’s Internet penetration has been less than impressive for several reasons, independent media consultant Indra de Lanerolle said. The government is still the largest shareholder in incumbent fixed-line provider Telkom, he said. Connection prices remain high, coverage is still low, and a new fixed-line operator appeared only last year, he said. The lack of competition means there has been little incentive to roll out ADSL, he said.

Successive governments have tried to promote broadband, including through efforts to build networks based on the energy supplier’s and on wireless technology, but none has delivered high-speed broadband, said Willie Currie, the APC’s communications and information policy program manager. There’s also a need to spur demand and usage through better content and lower prices, he said.

The African National Congress is widely expected to win the election, bringing a new president and communications minister, de Lanerolle said. This is a good time to persuade officials to take a deeper look at strategy, he said. The government and other key players are beginning to understand that broadcasting and the Internet are converging, requiring changes in the regulatory framework, he said.

The broadcasting and telecommunications regulators were recently merged into the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, and legislation was passed to mesh the sectors’ laws, de Lanerolle said. The idea was that future government licenses should be platform-neutral, but that hasn’t worked in practice, he said. The government is licensing spectrum from digital switch-over, but it’s more interested in how much money the auctions bring than in broadband deployment, he said. Broadcasters are trying to hold on to as much spectrum as possible, and the regulator doesn’t seem to be considering how to balance use of the digital dividend, he said.

De Lanerolle said he hopes the campaign will convince the new government that the issue concerns the whole economy, not just broadcasters or e-communications companies. South Africa, which started from a low base in the quality, quantity and speed of its Internet connections, is going backwards even as the government tries to lure outsourcing businesses, he said.

Content is also an issue, de Lanerolle said. TV, music and to a lesser extent movies are either regulated or highly controlled, he told us. Broadcasters are required to show a certain amount of local content on TV channels, but the more competition there is from the Internet, the more outdated that and other rules will become, he said. South African content providers are competing with those from around the planet, so their niche market will dry up, he said. It’s inevitable, but rather than viewing broadband as a threat, they must reinvent themselves, he said.

The telecom sector is undergoing “radical deregulation” due to recent, aggressive competition between the incumbent Telkom and Vodacom, de Lanerolle said. Moreover, a recent court decision opened the door for any company to obtain, build and operate a high-speed broadband network, and underwater cables are beginning to deploy, he said. Infrastructure is going up between major cities and places where the cable will land, he said.

The coalition will propose a draft framework for a comprehensive broadband strategy at Tuesday’s forum. It lays out the goal of the policy -- to make affordable broadband access available to everyone -- and a series of steps aimed at maximizing fiber and wireless infrastructure in urban and rural areas, and spurring provision of broadband content. It also calls for better e-government and e-citizenship services, and full access to broadband-enabled ICTs in educational institutions.

The groups hope someone in the new administration will understand the logic of what they're proposing and be willing to commit to a strategy, Currie said. They've invited the regulatory staff from regulator ICASA, the government and telecom companies, but no politicians or executives, he said. The point is to finds ways for less powerful constituents to engage on the issues, he said.

If forum participants adopt the draft strategy, the coalition wants a working group to consolidate the conference input and post it online for signatures, Currie said. The coalition hopes to place advertisements in newspapers during the election, and, afterward, to present their framework to the new communications minister, he said.

Asked about support from the ANC, Currie said this is a nonpartisan effort that all parties will support. Reversing the country’s Internet decline is a priority for everyone, he added.