Full broadband coverage in SA is not going to happen by 2020 if it’s just government putting up the money, said Minister of Communications Dina Pule during a press briefing at the Department of Communications’ (DoC) recent National Integrated ICT Colloquium held in Midrand.
In August 2011 the DoC announced its plans to achieve 100% population coverage for broadband services in South Africa by 2020, but a lot of money still needs to be invested to achieve this goal, Pule said.
Earlier in 2012 Pule explained that based on the investigation of some industry players, the cost of rolling out the network will be somewhere between R60 billion and R89 billion.
Pule also pointed out that this investment will not only help to get South Africans connected, but will also create around 200,000 jobs.
Government doesn’t have enough money to roll out the necessary infrastructure on its own, Pule said, but with the help of their “partners in the private sector” they hope to achieve their goal.
To address the issues around broadband roll-out in South Africa, the DoC has begun drafting its own broadband strategy, Pule said.
She added that she hopes to have the draft available within two months and would like to finalise it by the end of the year.
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