{"id":46933,"date":"2013-10-02T13:02:43","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T11:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=46933"},"modified":"2013-10-03T08:49:41","modified_gmt":"2013-10-03T06:49:41","slug":"what-is-broadband-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/broadband\/46933\/what-is-broadband-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"What is broadband in South Africa?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A version of the reviewed broadband policy will be coming at the end of November 2013, which will include a new definition for “broadband”, according to minister of communications, Yunus Carrim<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Addressing an audience at the New Age Business Briefing this week (30\u00a0September), Carrim said that the department “[has] begun to revamp the policy – we brought in some experts – [and] we’re seeking to get a version of it out by the end of November.”<\/p>\n

The broadband policy, subject to a number of talk-shops, colloquiums and indabas over the past few years – predominantly driven by controversial former minister of communications Dina Pule<\/a> – has yielded little else but talk.<\/p>\n

While Carrim provided scant details, he indicated that the department had made a “quite a few changes” to the broadband policy.<\/p>\n

Amongst the changes, Carrim read out a reviewed definition of broadband, as written “by the experts” straight from the policy:<\/p>\n

Broadband<\/strong>: always-on connectivity, where the user can access the most demanding interactive content to meet their needs in real time.<\/p>\n

It’s enabled by a high-end ICT platform with the potential to enhance the variety, utility and value of services and applications offered by a wide range of providers to the benefit of diverse users and communities across all sectors of the economy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Carrim said that, accompanying the definition, there will be a minimum definition of speed in megabytes per second (Mbps) given, and targets will be set for institutions to meet the requirements.<\/p>\n

Carrim also added that Icasa releasing spectrum in the 800Mhz and 2.6Ghz bands was also on the way.<\/p>\n

The minister said further that he had met with over 150 individuals and organisations over the past few months, to get everyone on board with the department’s overall strategy.<\/p>\n

“As government, we cannot do this alone,” he said, but noted that the time for “endless populism” is over.<\/p>\n

“We need your help…but we’re not going to have endless discussions. We can consult, but ultimately government must govern,” Carrim said.<\/p>\n

More on Yunus Carrim and the DoC<\/h3>\n

Carrim must answer for MultiChoice-SABC deal: DA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

DoC\u2019s wasteful expenditure revealed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Communications DG to stay: minister<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Carrim on LLU: wait a little bit longer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A version of the reviewed broadband policy will be coming before the end of the year \u2013 along with a new definition for \u201cbroadband\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":37027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5553],"tags":[58,26,36,6270],"class_list":["post-46933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadband","tag-broadband-1","tag-headline","tag-icasa","tag-yunus-carrim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46933","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46933"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47054,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46933\/revisions\/47054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}