In order for South African businesses to keep pace with international counterparts and retain a competitive edge over local rivals, access to fast, reliable Internet is becoming increasingly important.
And yet according to global investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, South Africa’s biggest area of underperformance when it comes to its economic growth is technology.
In an economic report entitled Two Decades of Freedom, in which Goldman Sachs details which advances the country has made since the advent of democracy in 1994 and where improvements still need to be made, Goldman Sachs came to that conclusion after calculating South Africa’s ‘Growth Environment Scores’ (GES) – an index developed to measure the extent to which structural conditions and policy settings in a country are conducive to transforming the economic potential of that country into reality.
South Africa scored low in the areas of personal computers, Internet users, Internet servers, patent applications and research and development.
A spate of recently revealed statistics shows just how crucial Internet connectivity is to a nation’s socio-economic development.
In a newly unveiled report, global management consulting firm, McKinsey and Company has measured the iGDP – the Internet’s contribution to the overall economy as part of the gross domestic product of a country – of several African nations, including that of South Africa, which is considered to be the continent’s largest economy along with Nigeria.
Yet despite this, McKinsey reports that South Africa’s iGDP measures at a low 1.4%, putting it fourth in Africa, behind Senegal, Kenya and Morocco.
“While the South African government is fully aware that the country’s Internet penetration is too low – so much so that it has had goals to implement a national broadband network and achieve universal broadband access in the country for all citizens by 2020 – it has been frustratingly fraught with bureaucratic delays,” says Jaco Visagie, co-director of Skywire Technologies, an alternative and innovative telecommunications services provider.
“And during this time, during which the government waits, debates and regulates, South African consumers continue to lose out, the digital divide widens even further between us and the rest of the world and our economy suffers for it.”
Visagie says this is why it gives the team at Skywire such a thrill to announce that Skywire’s next generation network has gone national in South Africa, enabling them to deliver fast, stable and reliable Internet to even more citizens. “We have now deployed in eight of the nine provinces, with the Northern Cape planned for this year.”
According to Visagie, Skywire is up to the task of extending its reach, since it is already skilled in providing Internet and voice services to those businesses and industries located outside the realms of the network infrastructure of the populated urban areas with its cutting-edge microwave-based wireless technologies.
“We serve a wide array of businesses, from small enterprises to JSE-listed multinational and international companies, mines, two Eskom power stations and game lodges. Sometimes these places are located far off the beaten track, beyond the national grid, in challenging terrain that is often difficult to reach, which until now has been underserved since fixed line infrastructure is too costly to deploy there.”
Visagie credits Skywire’s success to its versatility.
“Since we are not merely a fixed line provider, but offer several wireless solutions as well, we are able to fulfil various needs. We offer last mile connectivity countrywide, broadband services via various undersea cables for redundancy, as well as voice termination via our own interconnects to all PTSN partners. This ensures that our customers get only the best services, and can choose those services that best fit their needs.”
He says the other aspect of the company’s success is something that the South African government can learn from.
“Teamwork. Although we are in possession of a value added network services (VANS) license, which has been converted to an Individual Electronic Communications Network Services (I-ECNS) license and an Individual Electronic Communication Services (I-ECS) license, allowing us to construct network infrastructure of our own as well as deliver voice and data services across such a network, we also make use of Telkom’s infrastructure,” he explains.
“In order to deliver all the bandwidth our customers require, we also have a Connectivity to various undersea providing Internet bandwidth.
“If we can all find a way to work together instead of implementing regulations that could lead to a monopolising situation, it will be a win-win situation for everyone: not just allowing more providers to enter the market, which will be good for consumers who will be able to pick and choose, but it will automatically make Internet more affordable and therefore more accessible to more South Africans,” he concludes.
