"Sorry Mr. President, your country is still being run on broadband version 1.0 and the rest of the world is running version 2.0, please upgrade!" These are the words a future South African president might hear when new technology exposes our current telecommunications sector for the children’s playpen that it currently is.
The future of communication will rely heavily on the availability of affordable broadband. Rollout of this technology hasn't stirred up much excitement in South Africa yet, for the simple reason that the people who are supposed to have access to it, doesn't! Broadband in this country simply is too expensive and those who have judicially protected rights to control bandwidth as if it were a mineral resource are holding the market ransom. One cannot help but wonder why we are being held up in this quagmire of senseless political and monopolistic red tape when it really is not necessary anymore.
Recent moves and promises to deregulate the South African telecommunications industry have however given hope, be it a little subdued in the spirits of the people who have seen so many promises going right out the window just before delivery. Bandwidth should not be a scarce resource in South Africa. It should be a simple matter of the big money having the freedom to buy it and sell it here. This is however not the case. Bandwidth is being deliberately turned into a scarce resource because scarce resources have the uncanny ability of without exception demanding a hefty price.
This is a scandalous state of affairs especially in a country that can do with peaking the interest of young people in the possibilities of technology. Nothing can be taught like a mind that has been opened by the wonder of simple interest, for he/she who has interest in a subject can educate him/herself. Excuse my going off on a tangent in philosophical banter but I imagine there will not be a dissenting voice from a reasonable person to state that this is not true.
We need to get a network access point of some or other nature into every home, shanty or hut in the country by any means possible and if nobody is willing to do it, the people must do it themselves. This must happen without hindrance from government or an overpaid, under delivering, money mongering, greed driven and plain silly organization like Telkom.
Here is a story I found that compelled me to write the above (note the bits about what the future holds):
http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/29/technology/cell.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes
Chip power, times 10
Sony, IBM, Toshiba disclose details of new processor that will run next-generation electronics.
November 29, 2004: 6:13 AM EST
TOKYO (Reuters) - IBM, Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. on Monday unveiled some key details on the powerful new "Cell" processor the three are jointly producing to run next-generation computers, game consoles and TVs.
Cloaked in secrecy and the object of much speculation since the three conglomerates announced the project in 2001, Cell will be 10 times more powerful than conventional chips and able to shepherd large chunks of data over broadband networks.
In a joint release, the three firms gave a glimpse of their respective plans for Cell-powered products, but were mum on technical details, which will be revealed Feb. 6-10 at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco.
IBM (Research), Sony (Research) and Toshiba are investing billions of dollars to develop and prepare for mass production of Cell, which is a multicore semiconductor composed of several processors that work together to handle multiple tasks at the same time.
"In the future, all forms of digital content will be converged and fused onto the broadband network," Ken Kutaragi, executive deputy president and COO of Sony, said in the release. "Current PC architecture is nearing its limits."
IBM said it would start pilot production of the microprocessor at its plant in East Fishkill, N.Y., in the first half of 2005. It will use advanced 300 millimeter silicon wafers, which yield more chips per wafer than the 200 mm kind.
It also announced plans to first use the chip in a workstation it is developing with Sony, targeting the digital content and entertainment industries.
Sony said it would launch home servers and high-definition televisions powered by Cell in 2006, and reiterated plans to use the microchip to power the next-generation PlayStation game console, a working version of which will be unveiled in May.
Toshiba said it planned to launch a high-definition TV using Cell in 2006.
### What we need in South Africa is cheap 24/7, always on Internet for under R300 a month. ###
The future of communication will rely heavily on the availability of affordable broadband. Rollout of this technology hasn't stirred up much excitement in South Africa yet, for the simple reason that the people who are supposed to have access to it, doesn't! Broadband in this country simply is too expensive and those who have judicially protected rights to control bandwidth as if it were a mineral resource are holding the market ransom. One cannot help but wonder why we are being held up in this quagmire of senseless political and monopolistic red tape when it really is not necessary anymore.
Recent moves and promises to deregulate the South African telecommunications industry have however given hope, be it a little subdued in the spirits of the people who have seen so many promises going right out the window just before delivery. Bandwidth should not be a scarce resource in South Africa. It should be a simple matter of the big money having the freedom to buy it and sell it here. This is however not the case. Bandwidth is being deliberately turned into a scarce resource because scarce resources have the uncanny ability of without exception demanding a hefty price.
This is a scandalous state of affairs especially in a country that can do with peaking the interest of young people in the possibilities of technology. Nothing can be taught like a mind that has been opened by the wonder of simple interest, for he/she who has interest in a subject can educate him/herself. Excuse my going off on a tangent in philosophical banter but I imagine there will not be a dissenting voice from a reasonable person to state that this is not true.
We need to get a network access point of some or other nature into every home, shanty or hut in the country by any means possible and if nobody is willing to do it, the people must do it themselves. This must happen without hindrance from government or an overpaid, under delivering, money mongering, greed driven and plain silly organization like Telkom.
Here is a story I found that compelled me to write the above (note the bits about what the future holds):
http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/29/technology/cell.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes
Chip power, times 10
Sony, IBM, Toshiba disclose details of new processor that will run next-generation electronics.
November 29, 2004: 6:13 AM EST
TOKYO (Reuters) - IBM, Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. on Monday unveiled some key details on the powerful new "Cell" processor the three are jointly producing to run next-generation computers, game consoles and TVs.
Cloaked in secrecy and the object of much speculation since the three conglomerates announced the project in 2001, Cell will be 10 times more powerful than conventional chips and able to shepherd large chunks of data over broadband networks.
In a joint release, the three firms gave a glimpse of their respective plans for Cell-powered products, but were mum on technical details, which will be revealed Feb. 6-10 at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco.
IBM (Research), Sony (Research) and Toshiba are investing billions of dollars to develop and prepare for mass production of Cell, which is a multicore semiconductor composed of several processors that work together to handle multiple tasks at the same time.
"In the future, all forms of digital content will be converged and fused onto the broadband network," Ken Kutaragi, executive deputy president and COO of Sony, said in the release. "Current PC architecture is nearing its limits."
IBM said it would start pilot production of the microprocessor at its plant in East Fishkill, N.Y., in the first half of 2005. It will use advanced 300 millimeter silicon wafers, which yield more chips per wafer than the 200 mm kind.
It also announced plans to first use the chip in a workstation it is developing with Sony, targeting the digital content and entertainment industries.
Sony said it would launch home servers and high-definition televisions powered by Cell in 2006, and reiterated plans to use the microchip to power the next-generation PlayStation game console, a working version of which will be unveiled in May.
Toshiba said it planned to launch a high-definition TV using Cell in 2006.
### What we need in South Africa is cheap 24/7, always on Internet for under R300 a month. ###