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Cape Town – On Friday the big-ticket fibre optic cable
system Wacs finally linked the west coast of Africa with the rest of the world.
The West Africa Cable System, or Wacs will considerably
expand South Africa’s broadband capacity and give countries like Namibia,
Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Togo a direct connection to the
internet for the first time. These countries have to date had to buy their
broadband capacity from other countries with access to cable systems. Now they
can themselves sell capacity to other countries without a direct link, such as
Botswana and Angola.
"It's as though we are no longer penned in,” says Wessel van
der Vyver, managing director for international services at Telecom Namibia. “We
have upgraded our entire network in Namibia to benefit from the enlarged
capacity.”
Other than Wacs, South Africa already has access to Seacom
and EASSy on the east coast of Africa and SAT3 on the west coast.
These undersea cable systems “transport” the internet
between countries. Wacs, at a cost of
$650m, is 14 500km long with a capacity of 5.1 terabits per second – the
biggest cable linked to South Africa. This cable system was approved in 2009
and is being operated by a consortium of 14 companies, including MTN Group
[JSE:MTN], Broadband Infraco, Neotel and Vodacom Group [JSE:VOD].
What does it mean for the South African consumer and his
pocket? Not much at the moment, but within the next couple of years it is
expected to lead to significantly lower broadband costs.
The bigger cables enlarge the capacity of the available
internet connection in South Africa. They make it easier for telecommunications
companies to offer consumers additional data. It could also improve competition
between companies, leading to lower pricing.
“New cables make a big difference to the internet speed we
can possibly use,” says Angus Hay, Neotel’s head of strategic developments. In
recent years there have been wholesale price reductions in South Africa. There
is no doubt that value has been added and that prices have come down, he adds.
The enlarged capacity also makes it possible for local
companies to offer much faster access to the internet.
There are a number of pilot projects in the country where
suppliers are testing superfast internet speeds.
Telkom, for instance, is examining the possibility of a
domestic broadband speed of around 40 megabits per second. Since last year MTN
has been testing Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in various cities. This
mobile technology, sometimes referred to as 4G, makes possible a mobile
broadband speed of (theoretically) around 300 megabits per second.
Bigger and newer undersea cables are but one part of the
picture in making such speeds possible. There are however regulatory issues,
such as the awarding of telecommunications spectrum and access to Telkom’s
local loop, which play more of a role. But without these cables such speeds
would not be possible.
- Sake24
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.
