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In an era driven by digital connectivity, the recent events involving the unprecedented damage to three of South Africa’s major west coast undersea internet cables have thrust the country into a precarious position.

A king once asked a wise man what he would like in payment for his services. The wise man presented the king with a chessboard, and said he would like one grain of rice that doubles for every one of the 64 squares on the board. Without thinking, the king accepted, not realising that by the time he reached the second half of the board, he’d be paying the man more rice than the kingdom could produce in a year.

So, you want to become a Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP), but have no idea where to start? If you thought you could just take your existing internet connection and beam it across the neighbourhood, think again. It’s illegal to start selling internet services without a license, so you’ll want to make sure you dot your ‘i’s and cross your ‘t’s before doing anything else.

The Independent Communication Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has officially made a large tranche of additional 6E spectrum available to South African users, with immediate effect.

WiFi has been a significant part of our daily lives for many years, and its importance continues to grow as more devices rely on wireless connectivity.

The Wireless Access Providers Association (WAPA) recently called for South Africa's government to free up vast tracts of radio frequency spectrum in the 6GHz band, claiming that doing so could drive a wave of economic growth. But this isn't a plea for spectrum for cellular. This is about Wi-Fi, as Paul Colmer of the WAPA executive management committee, explained.

While 5G promises to bring many benefits to consumers, including faster download speeds, lower latency, and better network capacity, it also comes with some challenges, one of the most significant being increased power consumption.

The negative impact of power outages on internet access is the focus in this edition of the Business Day Spotlight. 

Our host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined by Paul Colmer, an executive management committee member at the Wireless Access Provider’s Association (WAPA). 

The WAPA has about 250 members across SA, 200 of which are licensed internet service providers such as Vox, BitCo and Herotel. 

The ongoing power crisis is starting to threaten one of the fundamental drivers of South Africa’s digital economy: Internet access. That’s because one of the biggest unforeseen consequences of Eskom’s persistent load shedding is the increasing failure of both telecommunications and Internet services to homes around the country.

WAPALOZA is back! With the Covid pandemic behind us, it was time to get back to brass tacks and chart the way forward for South African WISPS, and what better way to do that than at the biggest wireless industry event in the country.