State backing for broadband as development tool
The department’s director-general, Lyndall Shope-Mafole, said she wanted to ensure "that SA had the capacity to advance its socioeconomic development and improve the wellbeing of the population".
She said the department wanted to maximise investment in and through the information communication technologies (ICT) sector. The department had given priority to investments in broadband infrastructure, she said.
The competitiveness of the SA economy could be increased by ensuring that its ICT infrastructure and services were available, reliable and affordable, Shope-Mafole said.
She listed some of the strategic objectives of her department:
- Accelerate the use of ICT as a tool in all spheres of government delivery of socioeconomic development;
- Facilitate the development and improve the sustainability of small businesses in the ICT and other sectors;
- Contribute to national safety and security through ICT; and
- Facilitate access to ICT by women, people with disabilities, youngsters and children.
The government has identified ICT as one of the key factors in stimulating economic growth in line with the accelerated and shared growth initiative of South Africa (Asgisa).
A broadband Internet connection might be considered a luxury by the many people who still lack access to basic amenities such as clean drinking water and electricity.
Broadband is a transmission technology capable of supporting a wide range of frequencies, from audio up to video, and it allows cheaper and faster access to the Internet.
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka recently said the government acknowledged that one of the biggest barriers to achieving SA’s investment goals was the cost of telecommunications. It is to lower this cost that the government wants to deregulate the sector and license a second national fixed-line operator that would compete with Telkom.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said ICT could help accelerate SA’s growth and that it was probably the only sector that could link the first and second economies sustainably.
Dean Suchard, an executive at Internet Solutions, said broadband was the technology of the future because, unlike a dial-up Internet connection, it was always connected. He said broadband enabled small business to do what had been the preserve of big corporates.
"Broadband is reliable and enables SMMEs to do much more e-commerce. They will be able to sell more online, have a better e-mail experience and lower their monthly phone bill by using the Voice Over Internet Protocol," said Suchard.
He said Telkom should drop its infrastructure costs. It charges between R270 and R680 for 1 Mbyte per second connectivity.
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