{"id":137419,"date":"2016-09-20T17:15:56","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T15:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=137419"},"modified":"2016-09-20T17:15:56","modified_gmt":"2016-09-20T15:15:56","slug":"south-africa-sets-aside-r2-5-billion-for-broadband-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/137419\/south-africa-sets-aside-r2-5-billion-for-broadband-network\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa sets aside R2.5 billion for broadband network"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2016-09-20\/south-africa-allocates-180-million-for-high-speed-internet-push\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Bloomberg reported that<\/strong><\/a> the South African government has allocated R2.5 billion for a national broadband network.<\/p>\n<p>Telecommunications Minister Siyabonga Cwele said in an interview that \u201cthe government wants the entire country to have access to high-speed Internet within the next four years\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is still a shortfall in our funding, but we hope to start rolling out broadband as soon as possible,\u201d said Cwele.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are sure additional money will come in as we start building.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to delegates at SATNAC 2016 earlier this month, <a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadband\/178408-broadband-war-room-for-south-africa.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Cwele said the government\u2019s Broadband War Room<\/strong><\/a> was established to speed up the roll-out of the country\u2019s broadband policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are also practicing this coordination at the implementation level through Provincial Broadband Steering Committees that seek to align all broadband activities to the South Africa Connect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadband\/118889-telkom-must-fund-governments-broadband-plans-report.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>South Africa\u2019s broadband policy<\/strong><\/a>, South Africa Connect, requires 50% of South Africans to have access to a 5Mbps connection by 2016.<\/p>\n<p>The policy also states 90% of South Africans must have access to a 5Mbps connection by 2020, while 50% of citizens must connect at 100Mbps.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">First phase of the broadband project<\/h3>\n<p>In his <a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/118835-broadband-roll-out-areas-for-government-internet-announced.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>2015 State of the Nation address<\/strong><\/a>, President Jacob Zuma announced the beginning of the first phase of the broadband roll-out initiative.<\/p>\n<p>The initial phase of the roll-out would encompass offices in eight district municipalities, said Zuma.<\/p>\n<p>The municipalities\u00a0were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dr Kenneth Kaunda in North West<\/li>\n<li>Gert Sibande in Mpumalanga<\/li>\n<li>O.R. Tambo in the Eastern Cape<\/li>\n<li>Pixley ka Seme in the Northern Cape<\/li>\n<li>Thabo Mofutsanyane in the Free State<\/li>\n<li>Umgungundlovu and Umzinyathi in KwaZulu-Natal<\/li>\n<li>Vhembe in Limpopo<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the Bloomberg interview, Cwele again mentioned these eight areas. It is uncertain when the project will be completed.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on broadband<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/123697\/lack-of-spectrum-slowing-down-sa-broadband-roll-out\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Lack of spectrum slowing down SA broadband roll out<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/113001\/telkom-in-talks-with-broadband-infraco-report\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Telkom in talks with Broadband Infraco: report<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/broadband\/99076\/broadband-infraco-asks-for-r1-billion-from-govt\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Broadband Infraco begs for R1 billion govt bailout<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bloomberg reported that the South African government has allocated R2.5 billion for a national broadband network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":36175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-137419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-active"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137419"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137427,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137419\/revisions\/137427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}