Mweb to push Naspers content in 2014?
The Wireless Access Providers’ Association (WAPA) believes that Mweb will begin pushing content from the Naspers engine to home-internet users in 2014.
Mweb provides in excess of 320,000 customers with internet connectivity on a 10Gbps national network.
WAPA notes that Telkom has long led the convergence charge, offering consumers and businesses bundled services comprising fixed and mobile connectivity.
In 2013, the company was joined by Afrihost and Mweb, both of which complemented their home ADSL services with mobile “MiFi” offers.
The industry body pointed out that Mweb has made public its intention to build a nationwide Wi-Fi network and offer bundled home and public-access connectivity.
“WAPA expects this trend to continue in 2014, specifically in the consumer marketplace, as these industry leaders are joined by others, and alliances formed between both incumbent players and upstarts or smaller, specialist companies.”
WAPA said that many analysts have already predicted that 2014 will be a breakout year for Wi-Fi in South Africa, adding that it has seen this already taking shape internally.
According to Effective Measure’s November 2013 demographics report, the percentage of South Africans accessing the internet over ADSL dropped sharply from 51% to 42%, while the percentage accessing the internet over Wi-Fi grew from 28% to 34%.
“In the residential space, expect to see content in the form of video-on-demand as Telkom is rumoured to be in talks with Netflix, and Mweb will begin pushing content from the Naspers engine to home-internet users,” WAPA said.
Mweb is owned by MultiChoice, a pay television operator, offering local and international content through its digital satellite television platform, DStv, and a subsidiary of Naspers.
“South Africa can also expect to see ever-dropping broadband prices and faster speeds,” WAPA said.
Bloomberg recently reported that Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko has held talks with a host of large media companies including Comcast, Bertelsmann, Naspers, and Netflix.
In November, it also reported that Vodacom is reportedly also in discussions with Naspers over access to its television content, while MTN has also pointed to multi-media developments over the coming months.
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MTN, Vodacom, Telkom move on mobile TV
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