Broadband speed to stay 256kbps in South Africa

[rpm]

Broadband speed to stay 256kbps in SA

Despite earlier statements, the Department of Communications is not looking at increasing the minimum definition of broadband in South Africa

[hawker]

Meh.

Welcome to the stone age!

[marine1]

Backwards

[eshwar]

Broadband speed to stay 256kbps in SA

Despite earlier statements, the Department of Communications is not looking at increasing the minimum definition of broadband in South Africa

Yeah, illiteracy infiltration.

Its politics, its easiwr to get 256kbps across the cointry so that politicians can say they fulfilled their goal of countrywide broadband. A lot harder with like 5Mbps

[Mr.CookieMonster]

we already have more than 256kbps. They shud make at least 1mbps the minimum, broadband means fast and 384kbps is not fast.

[Chevron]

Considering the state of adsl here I think they should have increased the minimum broadband speed to 512 down and 256 up.

[speedbird]

/Telkom gives a snore, passes wind and turns on its other side.

[kimbo]

Meh.

Welcome to the stone age!

No, Welcome to South Africa

[Bern]

What bothers me is this decision is based on the already outdated definition for broadband and it does not include things like upload or latency which should really be a consideration (doesn't have to be too strict, but within reason). The other major issue is why would you use a current (arguably outdated) specification for a future goal without taking some basic requirements in to consideration.

Lets look at some of the basic requirements:
Web2.0 or interactive services, barely usable at 256 currently, they are likely to only get heavier
Voice and Video becoming a standard - think of the developmental impact of video conferencing for teaching for example, shouldn't this be part of the thought process when defining standards?
Technology - what is currently available and what will be available in the future. 3G already gets us well beyond 256kbps, then we have Wimax (+), LTE (Advanced), HSDPA/HSPUPA (and coming versions) - surely the technology alone dictates a higher base rate for the broadband definition?? Not to mention the 802.11n (for both access and backhaul) and so forth. This is not even including the potential of cognitive radio and such.

Considering you can (with certain codecs) get HD out of 512kbps (so upload) and using good satellite latency as the minimum level you can get a reasonable specification, but I would allow for increasing the criteria due to technological innovation in the next 8 years.

256kbps is lazy. Hopefully industry will completely ignore this and standardise on something much better.

[skusku]

I dont even wanna comment on this actually! Its nonsense. Setting no limits and no goals will mean Telkom wont even try and better their minimum speed!

[Allin]

If the ANC has its way a runner with a paper note in a cleft stick will be fast enough to be classified as 'broadband"

[lexis]

pathetic!

[BGE]

That's because the idiots making the decision battle to count to 100...

256 ees a verrry beeeeg number!

[Qrox]

Bloody pathetic. This country really sucks when it comes to anything technological.

[saliehendricks]

The really sad thing will be when they fail to meet even 256Kb 100% penetration. It would be amazing if every south african had even a crappy 256Kb connection. This community is, lets face it, is insignificant compared to the whole country. Lets pressure the DoC to reduce the timespan from 2020 too 2016. Imagine the entire country had access too this website and could be informed of the poor state of affairs. The game will change then.