For many years South Africa's broadband market was held back by an expensive operating environment created by Telkom's dominance in the fixed-line market and in access to international bandwidth. This has begun to change, supported by the licensing of Neotel as a second fixed-line operator, as also by the involvement of mobile network operators such as Vodacom and Cell C in the fibre market. Wireless broadband services have carved out market share from existing DSL offerings, though the sector is dominated by mobile networks: about 95% of all internet connections are through mobile networks. Despite a growing footprint, the government's plan to provide national broadband coverage is largely based on mobile technologies.
The landing of international submarine cables since 2009 has brought down the cost of international bandwidth dramatically, and so led to lower end-user pricing. An additional cable providing connectivity to India, Brazil and onto the USA will come on stream by the end of 2020. Previously, Telkom monopolised access to the only major cable serving the country, and so was able to demand very high access prices but end-user pricing is now a fraction of what it was and will come down further in coming years as bandwidth is increased.
Key Developments:
Telkom FttC infrastructure passing close to three million premises;
Cell C extends wholesale fibre partnerships;
MTN acquires Smart Village, expands fibre network reach;
Afrihost launches FttP services over Vumatel's open-access fibre infrastructure;
Telkom converts public payphones into Wi-Fi hotspots;
Vumatel extends open-access network offering 1Gb/s services;
Report update includes the regulator's March 2019 report on the ICT sector, operator data to September 2018.
Companies mentioned in this report include:
Telkom, Neotel, Vodacom, MTN Network Solutions, Cell C, Atlantic Internet Services, Business Connexion, Internet Solutions, Verizon Business, MWEB, Vox Telecom (DataPro), Sentech, iBurst (WBS, Blue Label).
The landing of international submarine cables since 2009 has brought down the cost of international bandwidth dramatically, and so led to lower end-user pricing. An additional cable providing connectivity to India, Brazil and onto the USA will come on stream by the end of 2020. Previously, Telkom monopolised access to the only major cable serving the country, and so was able to demand very high access prices but end-user pricing is now a fraction of what it was and will come down further in coming years as bandwidth is increased.
Key Developments:
Telkom FttC infrastructure passing close to three million premises;
Cell C extends wholesale fibre partnerships;
MTN acquires Smart Village, expands fibre network reach;
Afrihost launches FttP services over Vumatel's open-access fibre infrastructure;
Telkom converts public payphones into Wi-Fi hotspots;
Vumatel extends open-access network offering 1Gb/s services;
Report update includes the regulator's March 2019 report on the ICT sector, operator data to September 2018.
Companies mentioned in this report include:
Telkom, Neotel, Vodacom, MTN Network Solutions, Cell C, Atlantic Internet Services, Business Connexion, Internet Solutions, Verizon Business, MWEB, Vox Telecom (DataPro), Sentech, iBurst (WBS, Blue Label).
Table of Contents
1 Introduction and statistical overview
2 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks
3 Other fixed broadband services
4 Digital economy
List of Tables
List of Charts
Companies Mentioned
- Telkom
- Neotel
- Vodacom
- MTN Network Solutions
- Cell C
- Atlantic Internet Services
- Business Connexion
- Internet Solutions
- Verizon Business
- MWEB
- Vox Telecom (DataPro)
- Sentech
- iBurst (WBS
- Blue Label).
