Soweto gets Wimaxed

Soweto now has high speed Internet, well in some parts anyway. MWEB have been conducting WiMax trials around the country with Soweto being one of the earmarked areas. Intelligence (July issue) recently interviewed Rudi Jansen, CEO of MWEB, about the trials. According to Jansen MWEB is confident of being granted a full license in the near future.

"WiMAX is ideal for achieving rapid Internet installation in areas that were previously not catered for by fixed line operators, as WiMAX is not hindered by cable infrastructure. It is far easier and quicker to deploy a WiMAX network than a fixed line network. In addition, there is worldwide and local support for the technology which, in future, will drive costs down further as the uptake increases,” said Jansen in a recent company press release.

One of the big pull cards for WiMax is that it can provide access to areas where fixed line and WiFi cannot be accessed. The roll out of this technology has been seen as a possible bridge for the digital divide found in South Africa.

100 residents were connected within 7 days, an impressive set up time.

Online slow down

Internet uptake levels seem to be dropping in South Africa, according to a recent study carried out by World Wide Worx (WWW). The research predicts that growth for 2007 will sit at 3 percent, which, according to WWW, is the slowest annual rate witnessed so far. Looking at the predicted growth it seems that by the end of the year there will be 3.85 million connected citizens of South Africa, which equates to around 9 percent of the population.

“The harsh reality is that broadband has not yet made a major impact on overall connectivity numbers, even while dramatically increasing the usage of those who are already connected,” says Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of WWW. “The majority of broadband users are simply migrating up the connectivity food chain, from dial-up to broadband. So, while the haves get more, the have-nots remain locked out.”

According to the study iBurst is the only service offering that is attracting large numbers of Internet users, the ubiquitous dislike toward Telkom could be a big reason for this.

In the end it is all down to competition. The 3G offerings from MTN and Vodacom are starting to take a slice of the action and with the pending introduction of Neotel’s offering and the opening up of the SAT-3 cable the landscape could change. The problem is that this shift has been expected for some time now with no significant result.

IPTV in troubled waters

IPTV took centre stage at the latest First Tuesday event which was held this morning. The usual complaints of Telkom holding back IPTV were aired but this is nothing new really. Jonathan Newman, head of strategy at Multichoice, mentioned that by 2010 it is predicted that there will be 49 million IPTV subscribers globally, which will rake in an estimated $13 billion (R91 billion). Africa and the Middle East however are only predicted to gain 133 000 subscribers by then, only bringing in an estimated $3 million (R21 million) – the future does not seem too bright for our region.

An interesting point was brought up by a member of the audience who asked Newman if the business model of IPTV would actually work. The example the audience member gave focused on the fact that the subscribers will in effect be paying for advertising as this would eat up their bandwidth. There are not too many people out there who would be happy with this situation.

MySpace a haven for malicious code

It seems that MySpace is no longer a safe haven for social networking. According to Panda Labs there are several malicious codes out there that are using MySpace pages to spread.

”Cyber-crooks want to distribute their creations to as many users as possible. That’s why they use networks that attract millions of Internet users around the world to spread their creations,” explains Jeremy Matthews, CE of Panda Software South Africa.

According to Panda, the majority of these codes are Trojans. One in particular retrieves confidential information that has been saved on the computer.

Situations like these prove problematic for the boom in social networking sites. If the situation becomes too serious it could compromise the growth in these sites. On the other hand the same happened to e-mail and most people still use it.

Telkom/BCX is a no go

The long awaited competition tribunal, looking into the Telkom / BCX merger, has finally made a decision. They have denied the merger between the telecoms provider and the outsourcing giant. According to BCX they believed they had a 50/50 chance, obviously the wrong 50 was chosen.

The findings show some hope for the IT and telecoms sector in this country. If the deal had gone through Telkom would further increase their monopoly on the IT sector. Unfortunately for Peter Watt, CEO of BCX, the golden handshake he was probably expecting never materialised.

Telkom did mention that if the deal did not go through they would look for an international IT acquisition. It will be interesting to see who they approach.

Cell C adopt bold strategy

Cell C have effectively captured the low LSM market for mobile phones. They have just announced that they will be offering free Cell C to Cell C calls over the weekend to subscribers who have topped up during the week.

The lower LSM market is a huge one to capture and if this new strategy, called ‘Woza Weekend’ pans out Cell C will be showing Vodacom and MTN how it is done. On the other hand this does show that they are struggling to break the hold of the two big players in the higher LSM market, which through increased data usage does provide increased revenue.

Google sidestepping SA

So Kenya is where it is all happening at the moment. Yes Google’s Sub-Saharan head office is going to be stationed in Kenya. Surely South Africa has the infrastructure and is better managed for one of the biggest global companies around?

No reason was sighted but I am sure that because of Google’s online nature it had something to do with the problems and dilemmas South Africa’s Internet users endure on a daily basis. One could argue that a 4MB ADSL line just won’t cut it.

Whatever Google’s reason is, the fact must strike the heart of all people wanting South Africa to succeed. To lose out on the potential investment Google would put into the country is appalling. And if the Internet regulation is to blame then something needs to be done. But then again we all know this, let’s just hope the people in charge could be as educated.