Draft Broadband Strategy Framework released
Broadband penetration in South Africa lags behind countries with a similar level of development such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Turkey. South Africa has also fallen into fourth place in internet penetration in Africa.
"One of the reasons for this is that there hasn’t been a coherent policy framework to guide the development of broadband," says the South African National Broadband Forum (SANBF). "The election of a new government provides an opportunity to look at the policy framework with fresh eyes and to consider the inter-related components needed to develop a coherent national broadband strategy."
The co-conveners of SANBF, which will be held on 24 March, have released a draft framework for a comprehensive national broadband strategy in South Africa.
The ultimate goal of the broadband framework and strategy is to ensure that all South Africans will have affordable broadband access to the Internet.
To achieve this goal SANBF suggests various approaches to which stakeholders should commit themselves, including:
1 – Incentivise the building of more fibre and wireless broadband infrastructure;
2 – Prepare regulatory frameworks for fair access to and sharing of infrastructure;
3 – In the construction of municipal broadband network to meet their public administration needs local government should be required on a cost based, nondiscriminatory basis to make available their considerable excess capacity to the public either as a public services or for commercial purposes;
4 – A strategy to support the roll out of broadband networks to smaller municipalities to ensure equitable access to broadband outside of major centres;
5 – Government must make the spectrum needed for wireless broadband available – timeously, equitably and affordably – to maximize the rapid deployment of infrastructure across the whole country;
6 – Where possible, an integrated approach to stringing cable in cooperation with other infrastructure build-outs should be coordinated, particularly with regard to power lines and roads and in new spatial developments; and
7 – Research into renewable and alternative energy sources should be undertaken to find ways of powering up broadband connectivity, computers and handsets in areas of low power.
Apart from stimulating network growth and broadband access, the SANBF urges stakeholders to take steps to stimulate the provision of content and to enhance e-governance and e-citizenship in a broadband environment.
"Steps must be taken to stimulate the adoption and use of advanced broadband connections in order to fully realise the potential of ICTs and digital media to support learning and teaching," the SANBF said.
"The implementation of the national broadband strategy should be monitored according to an agreed set of indicators in order to ensure the goal and objectives are met," the SANBF urged.
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