{"id":16691,"date":"2010-11-18T18:34:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-18T16:34:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-11-18T18:34:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T16:34:00","slug":"broadband-infraco-is-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadband\/16691-broadband-infraco-is-here.html","title":{"rendered":"Broadband Infraco is here"},"content":{"rendered":"

Broadband Infraco was formed in 2006 by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) as an intervention to “rapidly normalise telecommunications market efficiency and address the cost of broadband to other industry players and end users.”<\/p>\n

The parastatal is essentially tasked to make bandwidth cheaper in South Africa, and despite the fact that the company has not made too much noise to date, a great deal has happened behind the scenes to test services and develop offerings which will suit the local market.<\/p>\n

Broadband Infraco received R1.64-billion in funding from Government and the Industrial Development Corporation, and the company does not expect to require any further funding to fulfill its current mandate.<\/p>\n

Broadband Infraco launched<\/strong><\/p>\n

Broadband Infraco was officially launched on the evening of 18 November 2010, at an event in Sandton, Johannesburg, by the Minister of Public Enterprises, Malusi Gigaba<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gigaba said in his address that the launch of Broadband Infraco should be seen as a Government initiative to deliver services to citizens, similar to Eskom and Transnet.<\/p>\n

“It is a testament to Government’s belief that the benefits of the state should not be privileges for some but rather bare necessities for all,” said Gigaba.<\/p>\n

“There is currently a large number of South Africans who do not have access to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure and services, particularly in the poorest and most often rural areas of our country.”<\/p>\n

“By deploying ICT infrastructure and services to these marginalized communities, Government can improve its machinery to deliver services cost-effectively and efficiently. We can break the backward perception that the advancements of technology are in a monopolized niche market only to be enjoyed by the rich,” said the minister.<\/p>\n

National bandwidth<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gigaba said that Government, through Broadband Infraco, has invested millions in deploying approximately twelve thousand, one hundred and twenty five kilometers (12,125 kilometers) of National Long Distance fibre optic network.<\/p>\n

“This network will provide higher capacity telecommunications services between all major national metropolitan centres, smaller cities\/towns and rural areas,” said Gigaba.<\/p>\n

“Broadband Infraco will extend its National Long Distance services to international cables that land in South Africa, as well as providing regional connections in the SADC region.”<\/p>\n

International bandwidth<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gigaba said that the international connectivity market has become highly competitive in a very short space of time with the arrival of the Seacom and EASSy undersea cables last year and this year respectively.<\/p>\n

“As most of you would know, the West African Cable System (WACS), in which Infraco is a participant, is under construction,” said Gigaba.<\/p>\n

“Infraco will provide international connectivity to the west coast of Africa through its investment in the WACS project. The West African undersea cable is a joint venture with other operators, and Broadband Infraco owns 11.4% of the cable capacity.”<\/p>\n

More competition<\/strong><\/p>\n

All these developments, combined with sweeping liberalisation measures, have changed the country’s ICT landscape – we can talk of real competition in the ICT market, said the minister.<\/p>\n

“The cost to communicate has dramatically reduced, although perhaps not yet at a point where we can celebrate,” Gigaba pointed out.<\/p>\n

“The launch of Broadband Infraco today is further evidence of the strength of the ICT sector, and it signals Government’s commitment to further lower the cost to communicate so that the majority of South Africans may have access to cheaper telecommunications and broadband services.”<\/p>\n

Broadband Infraco is here<\/strong><\/a> << Comments and views<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Broadband Infraco was launched at an event in Sandton, promising to drive down costs and provide more national bandwidth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-broadband"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}