Seacom 'to have mixed benefits'

Johannesburg - Telecommunications group Huge Telecom said submarine cable Seacom will open South Africa to new technologies, but will not have an effect on local connections.

Said James Herbst, CEO of Huge Telecom: "We welcome the dawn of more competitive communications. For decades South Africa has been ranked as one of the countries with the highest communications costs and this has in some industries stifled a lot of potential.

Seacom, the east-coast undersea cable project launched on July 24 provides Africa with a 1.3 Tb/s link to the rest of the world. Analysts have predicted it will take some time before SA consumers and businesses see the benefit of reduced bandwidth tariffs from projects such as Seacom, but that other immediate benefits will be gained.

"The vast improvement in capacity will open the door to technology solutions that have been near impossible to implement effectively in the past, such as software-as-a-service and true cloud computing, whilst the expected cost-reduction will mean that communications will finally become more accessible," said Herbst.

"In addition to that, the minister of communications' call for service providers to focus on pervasive broadband and connecting more remote communities will mean that South Africa as a whole will benefit."

Herbst said communications is critical to the stability and growth of any country.

"Studies have proven time and time again there is a direct correlation between pervasive broadband and economic growth and the access that Seacom and eventually other international cables will provide is definitely a step in the right direction," he stated.

"We believe Seacom will eventually lead to cheaper international broadband - that much is true.

"Seacom unfortunately has no impact on the cost of connecting offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. This is a local issue, and though the marketplace has legally been liberalised, in practice this is a much different story," said Herbst.

He believed Telkom still controls the local loop.

"That said, we are definitely making great strides as a country to move towards more affordable communication and we are very excited to be part of this process," he said.

- Fin24.com