South Africa has begun initiatives in investing in technology and infrastructure
h2>South Africa has begun initiatives in investing in technology and infrastructure
These will strengthen the country's data backbone and will improve the offering of broadband Internet and data-related services, according to a report from Pyramid Research (www.pyr.com).
'South Africa: Undersea Cables Double Broadband Capacity and Widen Service Vistas' offers a precise profile of the country's telecommunications, media and technology sectors based on proprietary data from Pyramid's research in the market. It provides detailed competitive analysis of both the fixed and mobile sectors, tracks the market shares of technologies and services and monitors the introduction and spread of new technologies.
South Africa's Internet revenue in 2010 stood at $953mn, which translates into a 25.4 per cent growth over 2009. "Pyramid projects broadband revenue to represent 92.6 per cent of total Internet revenue by the end of 2015, up from 79.6 per cent of total Internet revenue last year," says Majd Hosn, Research Analyst at Pyramid. "The landing of undersea cable WACS (West African Cable System) is one of several projects expected to double South Africa's broadband capacity," he adds.
"Internet providers and service providers need to be creative in their services because the quality of service is almost a level playing field," says Hosn. "Focusing on the market of incoming businesses can be a growing patch of revenue as more companies settle in South Africa."
Pyramid expects operators in South Africa to almost completely phase out 2G technology by 2015 in favour of 2.5 and 3G technology. In 2010 3G technology subscriptions were 20 per cent of total subscriptions. Pyramid estimates that this figure will easily rise to 54 per cent by 2015. The utilisation of the undersea cables and intensified competition to provide quality data services to customers will continue to promote the adoption of 3G technology.
PC penetration has also become a major area of focus for the operators and providers of Internet services. In order to utilise the increased data capacity in the country, operators might begin to provide offers on PCs such as Vodacom's Linkbook, which is an affordable computer that provides affordable Internet by bundling the Internet service with the laptop through 24-month contracts," indicates Hosn.
