Undersea cables to ease capacity
BROADBAND connectivity may not be perfect in SA in terms of quality of service, widespread availability, consistency and affordability, but it is improving all the time.
Over the past five years, maximum broadband download speeds have increased from 512 kilobits per second (Kbps) to 4 megabits per second (Mbps) with ADSL, and 3,6Mbps with HSDPA.
However, there are many complaints about local broadband speeds not living up to expectations and that maximum speeds are rarely achieved.
With mobile, wireless and ADSL services, speed is dependent on how many users the operator is supporting on the same bandwidth, which is an expensive commodity in SA, and how close to the base station or exchange the user is located.
In addition, when connecting to the internet throughput speeds rely on the performance of the links between the user and the web server hosting the website being accessed.
However, we are not alone. An article published on the MSN UK website says: “Most packages are sold under terms like ‘Speed up to 8Mbps, which of course means that if your speed is one kilobyte a second it is still within this explanation.”
A recent report commissioned by Communications Workers of America (CWA) says the current median broadband download speed in the US is 1,9Mbps, compared with 61Mbps in Japan, 45Mbps in South Korea, 17Mbps in France and 7Mbps in Canada.
As the country that started the commercial internet, the US is falling woefully behind, says CWA president Larry Cohen.
“We have pathetic speeds compared with the rest of the world.”
In the local market, there is consensus that an ADSL broadband connection provides more consistent throughput than 3G/HSDPA, but it can take weeks to install compared to one or two days.
“People tend to choose the service that is most readily available,” say MWEB CEO Rudi Jansen.
As a result, many users are opting for a 3G/HSDPA connection. This has pushed the numbers of 3G/HSDPA connections up to about 540000, while ADSL connections are reportedly edging towards 420000.
Jarred Cinman, director of Cambrient, says it is best to have at least two broadband options in case one fails, as is often the case in SA.
“With Telkom being the single point of failure, users will need a backup connection.”
He says iBurst can be erratic, but it is quick to install and costs less than 3G/HSDPA, but its coverage is limited to metropolitan areas and offers a maximum speed of 1Mbps.
Cinman says international internet access is heavily reliant on the SAT-3/SAFE undersea cable over which Telkom has the monopoly and which has limited capacity, but the planned construction of three additional undersea cables to link Africa to the rest of the world promises to relieve global bandwidth bottlenecks towards 2010.
With Neotel becoming more of a force to be reckoned with in the market, and Vodacom and MTN moving into fixed-line services, it will increase local broadband capacity, create greater competition and reduce prices.
However, the price of raw bandwidth can only be reduced to a certain point because operators need to make a profit, says Andy Brauer, chief technology officer at Business Connexion.
It will give rise to the introduction of differentiated bundled services for which they can charge extra, for example the delivery of voice, data and internet protocol TV (IPTV ) over the same connection.
He says analogue TV is delivered over satellite and microwave, but fibre is a lot faster
“In time, we will see 100Mbps speeds to the home over fibre.”
In the area of mobile data connectivity, over the next five year next generation 4G mobile technology will offer speeds of 100Mbps and 5G is expected to push this up to 1 gigabit per second.
As it stands, 3G/HSDPA technology is capable of running at 7Mbps, although the mobile operators still have to upgrade their networks to cater for this.
In the interim, the operators are building more base stations so they are closer together.
“The shorter the distance between the masts, the closer users are to the signal, which results in faster connectivity speeds,” says Brauer.
“The planned construction of three additional undersea cables to link Africa to the rest of the world promises to relieve global bottlenecks.”
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