{"id":550685,"date":"2006-10-30T15:12:29","date_gmt":"2006-10-30T15:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/550685-telecommunications-how-does-sa-compare.html"},"modified":"2006-10-30T15:12:29","modified_gmt":"2006-10-30T15:12:29","slug":"telecommunications-how-does-sa-compare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/550685-telecommunications-how-does-sa-compare.html","title":{"rendered":"Telecommunications – how does SA compare?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is mostly due to the high costs of services to the mass market. The growth of the mobile industry is evidence that cost structures are out of line. There is definite scope for price reductions and this can possibly be done without necessarily cutting organisational margins. These margins could be kept stable through resulting growth in the subscriber base.<\/font> <\/p>\n

The monopolistic nature of the market is problematic and is constraining the market growth considerably. To create the target of 6% growth in the industry it is important to make bandwidth accessible to small companies, and not just to the richer and more powerful corporates. This accessibility would contribute towards increasing the entrepreneurial success rate in the market, as well as effectively controlling inflation.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Changes in the industry have been on the cards for seven years, but Martin feels that these changes are simply taking too long. Although moving in the right direction, the changes are not doing enough to remedy the problem of over regulation in the local market. Too much control is still being exercised over the market and is also contributing to a lack of growth and availability. <\/font><\/p>\n

The slow movement of the proposed changes leaves the current cost structure in place. The market should move to a significantly freer market to enable growth. Organisations evaluate the telecommunications sector by the structured way in which regulations are carried out. An over-regulated market affects the credit rating and, therefore, affects investment possibilities.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Martin feels that there is significant potential for widespread Internet connectivity in SA, and particularly in the rest of Africa, if the convergence of technologies, in mobile and fixed networks is utilised. An analysis of what is constraining the market needs to be done. It is evident that mobile data is too expensive, competing with fixed data costs, which are already high. <\/font><\/p>\n

It is Martin\u2019s opinion that South Africa should follow the \u201cEastern Bloc model\u201d. This model entails the government subsidising the emerging market with respect to bandwidth and connectivity. Government should contribute to make data cheaper and, thereby, stimulate the economy.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Global adoption of VoIP is high. This is due to higher speed networks, good infrastructure and a wide variety of choices. The availability and use of local VoIP is constricted due to local fixed networks, bandwidth availability and only a few options being made available to the user. What is available is more accessible to corporates than to the SME market. <\/font><\/p>\n

The more affordable broadband connectivity is enlarging the scope of the services that ISPs and other service providers are offering to the market. With costs being spread between more consumers, sophistication of applications becomes more accessible to the SME market. <\/font><\/p>\n

Services such as data security and disaster recovery can be available from international vendors, with significant scope for price reductions. It opens up potential for SA to utilise and supply international resources. It is necessary to continue to stimulate that market and make it more affordable for smaller operators to consult to development houses. <\/font><\/p>\n

Great potential for hosted application and Web hosting services still exists in SA and the rest of Africa, especially with lower costs as well as flexibility of contracts and applications. Such potential is most prevalent in niche markets. Potential will grow when mindsets are changed and more positive case studies are available.<\/font> <\/p>\n

There is also enormous potential for SA as the hub for Africa. The challenge is to get the rapid technology changes implemented in Africa.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Opportunities also exist to enhance the rural areas and add to their quality of life. Providing infrastructure and connectivity in rural areas will contribute towards curbing urbanisation. There should be a significant focus on providing the best solution (which is not always a choice between a fixed or mobile solution). A combination of the two solutions could possibly bring the fixed network to the rural doorstep, with mobile taking it to the people.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Technology which enables users to roam between different wired, wireless and mobile networks is still in infant stages. The environment is also not conducive to this type of change as can be seen in the number portability scenarios, with current players putting up the hurdles. Networks are trying to protect their income streams, so roaming could face similar hurdles. <\/font><\/p>\n

There is a lot more openness with regard to partnerships, as is clear with the Telkom move towards acquiring Business Connexion. There is also more openness from mobile operators, however, the monopolistic nature of the industry still stamps out opportunities that should have been available to the SME market. <\/font><\/p>\n

This is not just a local issue, but is a huge factor throughout Africa. Dominant players are large contributors to GDP, therefore, while stimulating the SME market is vitally important, conflict exists with regard to the protection of the tax base and the contribution corporates make to the infrastructure. <\/font><\/p>\n

This results in governments allowing an unhealthy monopolistic situation, which poses a stability issue.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Discuss this article<\/a> <\/p>\n

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The mobile market in SA, although well established, is significantly underdeveloped with regard to data and services, says Martin Ackerman, who has been involved in telecommunications since the inception of the cellphone industry in SA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"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":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-550685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550685"}],"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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}