Following years of delays, the second national operator Neotel has finally launched services in competition to Telkom SA, using wireless technologies such as CDMA and WiMAX to provide alternatives to the incumbent’s copper access network. In addition, the government has created InfraCo, a national infrastructure company to provide cheap backbone network capacity to service providers. The arrival of new international submarine fibre optic cables to the country’s shores in 2009 will bring down the cost of international bandwidth dramatically. The government is planning to licence a third fixed network operator in 2009, along with a fourth mobile operator. Despite the significantly increased competition between different service providers, many municipalities in South Africa are implementing their own fibre and wireless broadband networks, including all of the major metro areas.
