Low download speeds and high costs are turning people away from fixed-line internet connections, Parliament’s communications portfolio committee heard on Thursday (29 November).<\/p>\n
Over the past three years, there had been a “dramatic” increase in the number of households opting to connect through mobile devices, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa<\/a>) councillor William Stucke<\/a> told MPs.<\/p>\n “The number of households who have fixed lines is… going down. This is not a healthy situation to be in.”<\/p>\n But the number of those where at least one member had access to the internet through a mobile phone was rising dramatically.<\/p>\n “A total of 32.9% of households now have access to the internet. It is growing because of mobile telephony… whose operators are not state-owned,” Stucke said.<\/p>\n His colleague, Icasa senior manager Pieter Grootes<\/a>, said that in this regard the situation in South Africa was “out of whack”.<\/p>\n “The reality in South Africa is that fixed-line prices are out of whack with the existing situation, and it’s also out of line with trends in the rest of the world.<\/p>\n “This is a matter that, going forward, all stakeholders – government, Icasa and licensees -will have to come together to work out, and address the fact that fixed-line costs too much, for too poor a quality.”<\/p>\n Grootes said consumers who wanted to buy access to the internet would compare price and download speeds.<\/p>\n “If I want a fixed line, I’ve got to pay R331, and I’ll get a maximum of one Megabits per second (Mbps); however, I can go and buy – for R150 a month, from a mobile operator – a package that will give me download speeds of 21.6 Mbps.”<\/p>\n In practice, these download speeds were somewhat lower.<\/p>\n “What this means is that if I have a fixed line, what I’ll get, if I’m lucky, is 600 kilobits per second download speed, at three in the morning.<\/p>\n “If I used exactly the same mobile package, which is half the cost of the fixed line, I get a download speed of over 10 Mbps.”<\/p>\n Grootes said this was the main reason the number of fixed lines was dropping.<\/p>\n “Why should I as a consumer buy a fixed line if I can get a better, cheaper service from the mobile operators?”<\/p>\n But if South Africa wanted to enter the digital era, “the way to do so is to have high capacity, high quality, cheap, fixed-line connectivity”, he said.<\/p>\n Stucke said the main reasons fixed line was “losing relevance” were price and download speed.<\/p>\n “[But] fixed-line connectivity is capable, in principle, of providing a much higher quality connection; it’s just that not everyone is getting that at the moment,” he said. “When you have a fixed line, your connection between you and the concentration point is dedicated to you; it is yours and yours alone.<\/p>\n “Whereas, when you’re using spectrum for that last-mile connection, then every user of that particular piece of spectrum from that base station is sharing that connection.”<\/p>\n The problems in rolling out fixed-line connectivity included long delays in obtaining approval to lay high-speed lines, and high civil construction costs, Stucke said.<\/p>\n The committee is holding public hearings on the cost of communications in South Africa.<\/p>\n Related article<\/strong><\/p>\n What is this Internet thing?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n SA online economy at 2.5% of GDP by 2016<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n SA mobile trends revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n SA\u2019s real mobile penetration revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Mobile Internet trends in emerging markets<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Mobile broadband can boost SA economy: report<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
\nHe said fixed-line connectivity was ideal.<\/p>\n