wireless

You could probably get more reliable, fast connectivity at a price you can afford. Of the 38 million South Africans who used the Internet as of January 2021, 36 million did so on mobile. Not all of them used mobile data (just the mobile device connected to Wi-Fi). But a lot of South Africans are using prepaid or contract data. It’s the most expensive way to connect in this country and among the most expensive worldwide.

Average revenues for Internet service providers (WISPs) who responded to the Wireless Access Provider’s Association (WAPA) survey (76% of all members) exceed R3 billion, employing 2 785 people and serving more than 200 424 home and business customers.

Connection poverty is assassinating a generation of young, entrepreneurial South Africans who represent the future success, or failure, of our embattled nation. It’s also quietly throttling the numerous established businesses, the skills, experience and knowledge their many employees could offer the next batch, and the learnings, revenues, and reinvestments they could make to support the whole event.

South Africans who work from home, study online and try to keep their businesses alive rely on connectivity, without which it all ends. “Digital loadshedding” is small-fry compared with digital fratricide. ICASA is effectively snuffing the concerted and, quite frankly, miraculous efforts of so many businesses, workers and students, who have survived lockdown using nothing but cellular connectivity, by reclaiming 5G spectrum from the mobile networks.

We urgently need your feedback on Wi-Fi 6E regulatory so please check out that section if it’s a spectrum band that’s on your radar. Expect high-demand spectrum issue to go to court. As of the regulatory briefing on 16 August 2021 there was a draft settlement order being circulated by the parties involved.

There’s a big noise about how fibre prices are tumbling as it reaches a lot more towns and communities faster than ever. But there’s also a bit of steam developing around an increasingly pressured pot of fibre contractors wrecking local infrastructure and disrupting other fibre networks in the process.

Decent broadband internet without fibre is too good to be true. Or is it? The sad reality for many South Africans is that they’ll never get access to fibre. Fibre needs a cable and can only be delivered where the cable reaches. Added to that, the fibre signal can only go so far from the box on the corner of the street. If you’re on a farm or even a smallholding the nearest street with a box on the corner is miles away and may as well be in the frozen wastelands of Canada for all the good it does you.

The Wireless Access Providers Association (WAPA) is in the process of renewing its Secretariat contract as part of a good governance process. The new contract will be to run the Secretariat function from July 2019 to June 2024 (5 years). There will be a probationary period for 6 months. The contract will then remain in place as long as the key performance indicators are met based on a 6 monthly review process.