Broadband everywhere ‘within weeks’
SOME of the constraints making it expensive to do business in SA and deterring foreign investment could be resolved within three weeks by using technology smartly, says Canadian hi-tech guru Leonard Brody.
People in every town or city could be given high-speed internet access and cheap telephony by blanketing the cities with a wireless network. It would use WiMax, a microwave technology providing long range broadband coverage and “last-mile” connectivity from the telecoms backbone to a customer’s premises. All it needs are wireless base stations attached to roofs or telephone posts on the outskirts.
Brody proposed the idea at an ITWeb conference in Midrand this week. “The broadband issue can be solved in three weeks,” he said.
“The technology exists to bring in 15 WiMax boxes and put them on telephone posts around the city to give you broadband wherever you want.” That would rapidly benefit the economy and boost the accessibility of information, he said.
The digital divide would not be eliminated by desktop computers, but by cellphones and other mobile devices using high-speed wireless connectivity, he said.
When delegates pointed out that they would be breaking the law by setting up a wireless network without the necessary licences, Brody declared SA’s regulatory environment “ridiculous”. The current rules were unnecessary, and government had to create the right conditions for entrepreneurs to do what they needed to do, he said.
Brody also questioned whether SA deserved its reputation as an entrepreneurial nation when its hi tech companies were not already implementing such innovations.
Silicon Valley technicians rarely stood back to ponder legal implications, but went ahead and let the policy makers and standard setters keep up if they could, he said.
In SA, providing basic telephony is still a monopoly enjoyed by Telkom and the cellular operators, while providing internet access requires a value-added network services licence.
“The government’s telecommunications policy is an absolute disaster,” agreed Chris Hart, a senior economist at Absa. “It’s beyond repair, and we need to design a regulatory environment for the 21st century. Punitive regulatory structures will chase industries out.”
The policies were so bad that companies were setting up operations in Botswana and delivering their services to SA to circumvent the local laws, he said. That was a reference to Black Earth Communications, which will broadcast satellite television to SA from Botswana.
“Broadband needs to be as common as electricity. Africa could become one of the most advanced areas of the world if we are prepared to buy into cutting-edge equipment right from the start,” said Hart.
This year government will pass new legislation to relax the licensing conditions and widen the range of technologies that service providers can use. Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri is due to introduce some changes next month but the industry is unsure of how wide reaching they will be.
A policy allowing blanket broadband coverage could help SA win international deals from companies looking to place their call centres or research and development plants offshore. Late last year some international players came to SA to explore the possibilities, said BMI TechKnowledge analyst Mark Walker. To win their business against stiff global competition SA must earn a place as a technology hub through improved regulations.
Some cities are already piloting wireless technology trials, but in a far more limited way than Brody advocates. Some local authorities are creating wireless networks while others are adapting existing power lines to voice and data services.
Knysna is testing Wi-Fi technology, a smaller-scale version of WiMax. It will use the network to give residents free local calls and cheap high-speed internet access.
But on the whole South Africans are showing an uncharacteristic lack of imagination and understanding about the potential benefits of broadband, said Viv Crone, chief technical officer of Spescom.
Broadband connectivity was as essential as clean water and electricity because it promised enormous social and business benefits. It would revolutionise the way business was conducted and change the lives of ordinary people, said Crone.
It could give a small rural business the same audience as a large business in a commercial centre. Education could be taken to the poorest and most remote communities, and people could work from home, cutting down on fuel use, traffic congestion and pollution.
Instead of recognising the benefits, however, people were squabbling over their share of the market. If greed and market dominance were set aside, SA could extract the maximum benefits from technology to build a better future for everyone, Crone believes.
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