Internet links boost wealth
A recent study by Worldinternetstats shows that a country with an average annual income per capita equivalent to $5000 can increase this figure by $700 with every 1% increase in internet connectivity.
The same principle applies in SA and Africa, although the average income is a lot lower, says Stefano Mattiello, regional sales director for sub-Saharan Africa at Motorola.
He says the company sees the new WiMAX wireless standard as a viable technology to drive widespread internet connectivity in SA and the rest of Africa.
WiMAX provides maximum speeds of 75 megabits per second (mbps) shared by the number of users connecting to an access point, and Motorola is achieving 20mbps at local pilot sites.
It is a lot cheaper to establish and maintain than GSM cellular infrastructure.
GSM base stations require a power supply and air conditioning and need to be sheltered from the rain, but WiMAX consists of a box that is not much bigger than a laptop computer and can be mounted on a pole or a building, says Mattiello.
A single WiMAX access point can be used to service an entire community and adaptors will soon be available to connect to the service from a PC or a laptop.
“The technology draws very little power and can even run off a battery. We are playing with alternative power units that work with solar energy and wind power.”
WiMAX is more efficient in its use of radio spectrum, which means it can be used to service a lot more users on the same amount of spectrum, he says.
Mike van den Bergh, group chief operating officer at Gateway Communications, says the challenge is to achieve the same performance and reliability with broadband wireless as provided by wired services like ADSL.
He says WiMAX promises to close this gap.
“We see WiMAX as the first wireless technology to replace wired infrastructure in SA and the rest of Africa.”
He says service providers such as Gateway plan to deliver costeffective voice over IP (VoIP) services using WiMAX.
The market is crying out for a flat-rate voice and internet access service and this can be delivered to customers in business and rural areas using WiMAX, he says.
“We believe we can get connectivity charges down to R250 a month using this technology standard.”
He says the company is testing WiMAX in other parts of Africa, and will do the same in SA once regulations permit it to do so.
Fixed-line ADSL is currently more cost-efficient than any wireless service on offer, but the user has to be located within about 4km of a telephone exchange.
In addition, ADSL depends on the quality of the copper-wire infrastructure. As a result, there are many locations in SA, even in high-density residential and business areas, that ADSL cannot reach.
But WiMAX extends up to 50km from a single base station and is independent of the wired infrastructure, says Van den Bergh.
Alan Knott-Craig junior, MD of wireless service provider iBurst, says it has recently been awarded a permanent WiMAX licence on the 2,5 gigahertz (GHz) frequency spectrum.
He says once implemented the technology is expected to provide download speeds of up to eight kilobits per second and the company is examining the feasibility of using it to complement its existing service delivery.
The company already delivers connectivity services to 22000 users at speeds of 250 to 300 megabits per second nationally across its existing wireless network infrastructure.
“WiMAX and iBurst are both 4G technologies, the difference between them being comparable to the difference between ADSL and a leased line,” he says.
The existing iBurst service is suitable for consumers and small businesses, but WiMAX will enable the company to provide communication services to larger organisations running mission critical applications.
He says the 2,5GHz frequency is being used to support WiMAX in parts of Europe, the US and South America, while other countries are using the 3,3 and 3,5GHz frequencies.
This poses a major dilemma for equipment manufacturers, says Knott-Craig.
“Intel wants to build WiMAX capabilities into laptops, but the chip must enable users to roam across the different spectrums that are being used to deliver the service.”
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