Broadband Network for Eastern Cape

Though this will not affect 99% of the people in this discussion board, it has the potential to greatly affect the lives of the nearly 2million people living in OR tambo district. Their cost of obtaining and disseminating information would be greatly reduced. But the other USAL holders must also get their act together and start offering services.
 
Is it just me or is KZN lagging drastically behind in this type of area?? No pilot projects, no planned rollouts?
 
Mthata (Umtata is now incorrect) is about the only place other than maybe Port st. Johns that will actually find a practical use for this, the rest of the area is so rural that a telephone is something to write home about, let alone broadband!
 
Yes, these places are extremely rural. Most of the larger towns (if one can call Libode, Bizana, Holy Cross, etc. towns) already have Telkom connections - that work some of the time anyway. And probably only Mthatha has ADSL. The problem is that less than 5% of the people live in these towns. Even cellphone coverage is non-existent in the rural areas. It does not mean these people dont have family / friends elsewhere in the country they like to keep in touch with. Currently they probably have to pay R20 for the taxi ride and R2/min to make a call just to talk to their family/friends/love ones. And since most of them are dirt poor, they probably speak only once a month to them, if not less often.

And besides, we dont know how big an impact broadband could have on these peoples lives. It would open the avenues to get news (of their choice) from all over the country and world, whereas they currently only have radio as their news source (and only 1 or 2 stations). One could use it to spread news about possible floods, drought relief, cholera outbreaks, etc. Many more people could be educated about HIV&AIDS, circumcision, etc, but possibly more important, have an avenue to get the facts and dispell the myths. The possibilities are endless.

Yes, the market for broadband in these areas is limited. But then again, before 1976 there was no market for TV in SA, and before 1993 there was no market for cell phones either. Hey, before around 1998, the market for broadband was mostly limited to large companies where a lease line of 2mb/s were costing around R40,000+ / month.
 
Oupoot said:
Though this will not affect 99% of the people in this discussion board, it has the potential to greatly affect the lives of the nearly 2million people living in OR tambo district. Their cost of obtaining and disseminating information would be greatly reduced. But the other USAL holders must also get their act together and start offering services.
Click to expand...
I agree - this is a great initiative.

Time to donate some of those older pc's I've got gathering dust - there might be a use for ubuntu after all. :)
 
Yes Oupoot, please don't misunderstand what I'm saying, it was purely an observation not an opinion. Any step forward as far as technology is concerned is positive.

Although I must say radio reception and cell reception in those areas is surprisingly decent (as from my experience in the specific areas I work)

A great initiative in those areas would be if the Xhosa speaking stations would maybe have weekly shows or something dedicated to teaching the people about the possibilities this move can offer!
 
The first phase of this project is expected to be complete before July next year.
Click to expand...
David Jarvis, CEO of UniNet, says his company will build the network at roughly a quarter of the cost of other WiMAX or CDMA solutions available in SA, with similar coverage.
Click to expand...
:confused: I was not aware that WiMax and CDMA services are already commercially available in SA...

Anyways, this has to be very good news for communities living in the soon [July 2007?] to be covered areas, but what exactly will the 'first phase' deliver, and what is planned for subsequent phases?
 
a little ironic that it is Uninet which seems to have a workable plan for "giving effect to the vision of the DoC in creating the USAL framework in 2001" (my quote)

:D

OR Tambo is the poorest district municipality in SA so I am very keen to see this model work...i am pretty sure others will follow this lead

@ ic - there may not be proven wimax solutions (and the trials so far are indicating performance significantly below the hype) but the buzz of this tech is very persuasive...suddenly everyone wants to be in the space

the network will carry voice which will i think be the most important app for the first couple of years for the majority of people outside of local government and industry.......in respect of voice i would imagine there will be a flat fee for all equipment and calls
 
SUCH BS... EVERY place is getting all these things except johannesburg.
WTF! I mean joburg is supposed to be the most lucrative market and no1 is setting up here....

I mean how many ppl will even use this and its in the middle of nowhere....:(
 
Oupoot said:
Yes, these places are extremely rural. Most of the larger towns (if one can call Libode, Bizana, Holy Cross, etc. towns) already have Telkom connections - that work some of the time anyway. And probably only Mthatha has ADSL. The problem is that less than 5% of the people live in these towns. Even cellphone coverage is non-existent in the rural areas. It does not mean these people dont have family / friends elsewhere in the country they like to keep in touch with. Currently they probably have to pay R20 for the taxi ride and R2/min to make a call just to talk to their family/friends/love ones. And since most of them are dirt poor, they probably speak only once a month to them, if not less often.

And besides, we dont know how big an impact broadband could have on these peoples lives. It would open the avenues to get news (of their choice) from all over the country and world, whereas they currently only have radio as their news source (and only 1 or 2 stations). One could use it to spread news about possible floods, drought relief, cholera outbreaks, etc. Many more people could be educated about HIV&AIDS, circumcision, etc, but possibly more important, have an avenue to get the facts and dispell the myths. The possibilities are endless.

Yes, the market for broadband in these areas is limited. But then again, before 1976 there was no market for TV in SA, and before 1993 there was no market for cell phones either. Hey, before around 1998, the market for broadband was mostly limited to large companies where a lease line of 2mb/s were costing around R40,000+ / month.
Click to expand...


I agree with most of the above, and have lived, in Mthatha for the past 12 years.

Cellphone coverage in the Transkei is very close to complete coverage, although one might at the worst walk up a hill to get signal. This, however, is not normally a problem, as the rural culture enjoy building the villages at the top of hills.

Presently ADSL3g, HSPDA and edge is in Mthatha only, whereas GPRS is available in Port StJohns and basically everywhere else.

Use of the broadband will have very little effect on the rural, as very few of them have electricity, let alone computers. Those that do have electricity, cannot rely on it, even in Mthatha.

There might be some business opportunities with internet cafe's but that will be limtited as clients are too poor to spend money on technology that they do not know.

The places that will benefit, which is as per the article, will be municipalities (maybe they can utilise skype to discuss how they plan on fixing the pot holes), clinics, schools. The clinics and schools are the main group that will benefit, and who can complain about that.

The biggest bonus is that there will be less demand for Telkom, what a pleasure.

By the way, on the radio stations, there are at least 3 rural stations around, and even the University much listened to Unitra radio.
 
mavx said:
Is it just me or is KZN lagging drastically behind in this type of area?? No pilot projects, no planned rollouts?
Click to expand...

there is no such thing as broadband in R S A .we use Telcoms Backbone ,which is already overloaded
 
rendan said:
SUCH BS... EVERY place is getting all these things except johannesburg.
WTF! I mean joburg is supposed to be the most lucrative market and no1 is setting up here....
Click to expand...
there is a huge fibre deployment programme in jhb on behalf of Neotel - as i hear it it is fairly advanced
 
*there is a huge fibre deployment programme in jhb on behalf of Neotel *

I'm betting we are way ahead in this department down here in Durban. Whether or not it is on behalf of Neotel or just the Municipality Greedos I couldnt say.


toady
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X