Bringing affordable Internet to rural South Africa

[Jamie McKane]

Bringing affordable Internet to rural South Africa

To connect the rural unconnected to affordable internet is not so much a technical problem but more that of economics. For the large mobile operators, it is of no economic value to connect people who live away from the main rural highways in sparsely populated areas, even as a loss-leader project.

Technologically speaking it is not much of a challenge. Using TV white space (TVWS) in the 470-692 MHz frequency band on a secondary basis has proven an excellent technical solution, but the economics of the system are yet to be tested and that is what the new Wireless Access Providers Association (WAPA) project is about.

 

[Ipwn 4]

Ctrl C + Ctrl V

 

[Zoomzoom]

Funny they managed just fine in the Northern Cape when they had to create a dead zone for the telescope. In fact rural NC has better internet than most of the rest of South Africa.

 

[Big_Pun76]

"The impact would be to provide at least 1 GB of data per person per month at a price of R30 per GB per month. The current cost of data in low income rural areas is about R600 per GB, so the new price would be less than 1/20th of the current price..." like what? R600 per GB? Who in rural areas would afford such? Something doesn't sound right here or is it my poor understanding of the Queen's language?

 

[Swa]

"The impact would be to provide at least 1 GB of data per person per month at a price of R30 per GB per month. The current cost of data in low income rural areas is about R600 per GB, so the new price would be less than 1/20th of the current price..." like what? R600 per GB? Who in rural areas would afford such? Something doesn't sound right here or is it my poor understanding of the Queen's language?

It works out to R600/GB average. Not that they necessarily buy 1GB at a time.