In this age where Internet access has become crucial to ones well being, we have managed to fall far behind international standards, and alienate 90 % of South Africans from one of the world’s biggest educational and financial resources. Looking for a Job, paying your electric bill, doing banking, finding a doctor, doing research for a school project and an endless amount of other activities, are just some of the functions of the Internet. Unfortunately, although the Internet might be the solution to some of our biggest problems, we will never utilize its full potential simply because of high prices and terrible management by Government.
South Africa, which is considered to be Africa’s biggest economy, falls behind Morocco, Egypt and Nigeria in terms of Internet access for their populations. South Africans have been burdened with high Internet bandwidth costs, slow speeds, bad management, and much more for many years now. South Africans pay some of the highest prices for Internet access in the world, and get some of the worst levels of service. It is a sad reality that many South Africans cannot afford Internet. Recent statistics regarding the amount of South African Internet users has shown that 11.6% of the population has access to the Internet and all of them can barely tolerate the expensive rates for International bandwidth.
The regulating authority ICASA ruled in 2006 that local Internet should be uncapped. So far M-Web is the only Internet Service Provider to actually comply with this regulation. As a result of this ruling many Internet companies have on the other hand drastically lowered prices for local Internet. Telkom for example, the countries leading telecommunications Company, has been giving away 10 Gigs of local cap away for every 1 Gig international cap purchased. Telkom Internet, M-Web Internet, Axxess, and WebAfrica are all Internet Service providers which sell "local only" bandwidth to their users, and it serves as a much more affordable internet option to many South Africans.
Local Internet is thus the most affordable option for the majority of South Africans, which want to take advantage of the Internet and its possibilities. The problem with local Internet was not obvious at first but quickly became realized when users started becoming aware of its limitations. Users had no official indexing website which they could use to navigate the Local Internet and thus never knew which websites they could access with their local cap. It was at this point when Local List was conceptualised. It started by a collaborative effort by a few Internet users that regularly updated a list of websites and servers that local users could access; this list then became the foundation of what is now Local List.
The Local List website is a free service which is still a community powered project. Users using the Local Internet regularly find new links they can add and thus the possibilities of the Local Internet grow everyday. No expensive international bandwidth is required. The website has received 10 000 site views in only its first 5 days since its launch showing that there is a clear interest from South Africans. This promises to be a very big development in South African Internet as it enables those who cannot afford international Internet access with an extensive list of alternative websites they can access with local-only. Many local users were surprised when the website announced that popular international websites like Comedycentral.com, mtv.com, vh1.com, NASA.gov, and many more, were all accessible using local internet.
The problems with South African Internet yet remain though, and because Local List was created to enhance Internet opportunities in South Africa, the job is far from over.
South Africa is having a presidential election in 2009 and Local List has, in collaboration with local Internet users and local Internet websites, decided to challenge political parties running for office.
Local List is now compiling a list of demands South African Internet Users have from the next SA government. It will then be officially released to all the political parties; several newspapers and it will be published on Local List.
