Broadband access the real digital divide
“Nearly 100% of the South African population has a cellphone but only 10% have broadband data connectivity,” says Noel Kirkaldy, director of wireless broadband for Motorola for Middle East and Africa.
He says there are similar trends in other developing countries.
“Access to broadband is the real digital divide.”
Without data connectivity the broader population cannot access the internet and the world of e-commerce. In fairness to the operators, it is difficult to roll out traditional copper cable or fibre infrastructure, but a lot quicker and easier to roll out wireless technologies like WiMAX, says Kirkaldy.
This can be done by setting up antennae on existing cellular base stations or on the top of rooftops and buildings. The cost of setting up wireless infrastructure is a lot less than fibre and it is designed to carry data, while the mobile networks are designed to carry voice.
He says throughout Africa mobile operators are benefiting from the lack of fixed-line infrastructure. It is impossible to implement ADSL in much of SA and the rest of Africa where there are no existing copper wire telephone cables.
Wireless broadband technologies like WiMAX have the potential to bridge the digital divide and are much quicker to roll out than digging up roads to lay cable, says Kirkaldy.
He says a major advantage of WiMAX is that it is moving into Africa at the same time as in developed countries.
“This is unprecedented in the history of technology.”
About 1300 WiMAX licences have already been issued to operators and service providers globally.
In SA, Telkom, Neotel, Sentech and WBA, which owns iBurst, already have full licences for WiMAX, but some of the ISPs are still waiting for licences to be granted.
Kirkaldy says telecommunication regulators globally all take guidance from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which has recently ratified the WiMAX 802-16e technology standard and added it to the IMT family of technologies, which includes the HSDPA mobile and CDMA 2000 wireless technologies. This allows regulators to issue blanket licences for this group of technologies.
WiMAX will come in different flavours including a fixed connection to the business premises or house, an indoor service that delivers data, voice and internet connectivity to a set-top box, and a fully mobile offering.
Mobile WiMAX will allow users to connect to the internet while on the move, in the same way they now can with cellular.
“Intel is about to launch the new Centrino laptop chipset which will support Wi-Fi and WiMAX connectivity,” says Kirkaldy.
Other mobile devices are likely to emerge before the end of the year that have cellular, Wi-Fi and WiMAX capabilities, but the prices of these devices will need to come down to below $100 for the broader population to be able to use them to connect to the internet.
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