DoC’s broadband conundrum
New finance minister Pravin Gordhan today delivered the first Budget Policy Statement of President Zuma’s government. Gordhan said that cabinet will work to deliver on five main priorities, namely creating jobs, enhancing the quality of education, improving health outcomes, rural development and fighting crime and corruption.
When it came to communications Gordhan said that they ‘have to explore options to lower telecommunications costs and enhance technology’. Gordhan further announced that the amount to be appropriated for communications has been increased by R 203 631 000 to R 2 470 494 000 for the financial year.
When it came to the mid-year performance status of the Department of Communications (DoC) it was a mixed bag of results. The DoC provider 29 community radio stations with broadcasting infrastructure in the first six months of this financial year, more than half the projected target of 45.
All four of the stadiums for 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and 2010 FIFA World Cup, which had to be linked to Telkom core network before the end of the financial year, have already been connected, while 71 of the 100 projected e-cooperatives has been established to increase the entry of youth owned small enterprise into the ICT sector. This target has also been changed to 71, which means that the DoC achieved its new target already.
This is however where the good news ends.
The DoC has not made any progress on its “50% readiness for service of the NEPAD submarine cable project” which has to be achieved by March next year. This indicator is however set to be reviewed. According to the National Treasury the DoC is experiencing difficulty in securing shareholder participation in Africa, and the global economic crisis has forced a review of the funding by international funders.
“Nevertheless, the 50% target for 2009/10 will be achieved through linking with other cables such as Seacom,” the Adjusted Estimates of National Expenditure (AENE) document states.
The DoC also failed to report on the increase in number of broadband subscribers. “It is still in the process of collating ICT data,” the AENE document says. According to the AENE the total number of PC broadband subscribers in South Africa is projected to hit 2 million in 2009/2010, while the number of broadband subscribers per 100 people is set to reach 3 by the end of this financial year.
According to unofficial figures the current number of broadband connections (often referred to as subscribers) in South Africa is close to 2 million, equating to a broadband penetration rate of around 4%. It will however be inaccurate to use this figure as ‘the number of broadband subscribers per 100 people’ as there are many people with more than one connection. It is however likely that this figure is already close to or exceeds the DoC’s projected value of ‘3’.
What is somewhat perplexing is that the projected number of ‘PC broadband subscribers’ by 2009/2010 is 2 million, a figure which will equate to a ‘number of broadband subscribers per 100 people’ of 4% with an estimated population of 50-million. The number of PC broadband subscribers will therefore exceed the number of projected broadband subscribers – a likely mess-up on the DoC’s side unless they have different definitions for these numbers.
The DoC also has a tough task ahead to reach its target of 900 women “in the construction sector listed on the e-commerce construction web portal each year.” In the first six months the value is still zero.
DoC broadband conundrum – discussion
Loading ...