Broadband penetration: How does SA compare?

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released its June 2009 statistics on broadband in OECD countries.  The reports shows that the number of broadband subscribers in OECD regions reached 271 million by June 2009, an increase of 10% from June 2008.

Half of the OECD countries have reached 25 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, with an average broadband penetration rate of 22.8 broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

The leading countries in terms of broadband penetration rates are the Netherlands (38.1), Denmark (37.0), Norway (34.5), Switzerland (33.8) and South Korea (32.8). 

The broadband penetration rates for other prominent countries include the United Kingdom (28.9), United States (26.7), Australia (24.9) and New Zealand (22.8).  On the low end of the scale we find Poland (11.3), Turkey (8.7) and Mexico (8.4). 

South Africa

South Africa continues to lag behind other OECD countries in terms of broadband penetration rates.  South Africa currently has around 2-million broadband subscribers, equating to a broadband penetration rate of 4 broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants – well below the OECD average of 22.8.

The Department of Communications (DoC) recently released its Adjusted Estimates of National Expenditure (AENE) in which it estimates that the total number of PC broadband subscribers in South Africa is projected to hit 2-million in 2009/2010, while the number of broadband subscribers per 100 people is set to reach 3 by the end of this financial year.

What is somewhat perplexing is that the projected number of ‘PC broadband subscribers’ of 2-million will equate to a ‘number of broadband subscribers per 100 people’ of 4% – exceeding the DoC’s projection of 3 broadband subscribers per 100 people. 

The DoC’s figures are therefore not only on the low side, but also contradictory.   The Communications Department clearly has to update its figures – but even more importantly update its targets to bring the country closer to international standards. 

Broadband penetration in SA – comments and views