South Africa is
among the top 20 countries in the world when ranked by the number of Internet nodes. The
Internet community in South Africa is about 30 times larger than the next largest African
countries, Egypt. Full Internet facilities are available throughout the country with about
150 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) commercially available. The upstream bandwidth is
available through the public telecommunication operator, Telkom South Africa, or by
leasing part of the bandwidth from Telkom for private networks. The current international
bandwidth stands at 90Mbps, of which 60Mbps are connected directly to the United Kingdom
and United States.
The topology of
South Africa’s Internet consists of about 10 "top-level" operators each
with their own leased line Internet links, as well as a number of "second level"
ISPs who share the international bandwidth of the top-level operators. Most of the links
are carried through the SAT-2 fibre cable across the Atlantic to the US, but there are
also satellite providers. One of the largest top-level operator is the South African
Internet Exchange (SAIX).
SAIX is a product
of Telkom and is South Africa’s largest, commercial Internet Access Providers. SAIX
has the largest Internet network in South Africa, powered by an assortment of Cisco
routers. There are 50 Points of Presence (POP) established by SAIX throughout the country,
and they are expected to grow to about 80 by the end of 1999. The bandwidth belonging to
SAIX is approximately 14.5Mbps with upstream link to the United Sates. Many commercial
ISPs in South Africa are subscribers of SAIX, and they range from large companies, such as
Global Internet Access, medium-size companies, such as Intekom, and a variety of small
companies. SAIX also caters to corporate clients who want to establish their own private
Internet network.
Apart from the
commercial entities, two non-for profit ISPs are available in South Africa: SangoNet in
Johannesburg, and HealthLink in Durban. SangoNet
is the first non-academic Internet provider in South Africa and is a member
of the Association for Progressive Communication (APC). The focus of SangoNet is to
support Internet development within the NGO sector both in the country and in Southern
Africa region.
Internet Service
Providers:
There are over
150 Internet Service Providers in South Africa. Here are some of the major ones:
Internet
Tariffs:
Dial-up
Internet Access costs around US$10-20 per month. For instance M-Web offers the following
pricing structure:
- Unlimited Internet access –
US$16 (R99) per month
- 3 hours of Internet access –
US$7 (R45) per month
- ISDN connection (64Kbps) –
US$33 (R199) per month, unlimited access
Note: Value Added
Tax and Telkom fee are included in the price; local call costs US$1.60 at peak time.
Infosat
– a service providing one-way satellite broadcast using Sentech’s (South
Africa’s broadcasting regulator) facilities to transmit signal. This technology
guarantees a 64Kbps link; however, each stream can carry a capacity of 2Mbps and each card
has an aggregate bandwidth of 48Mbps. As a result, if no one is using the system at the
same time, a subscriber can have access to 2 x 24Mbps sessions downloading from the
Internet. The costs for this service is approximatelyR200/per month (US$33) for 64Kbps
link to a stand-alone user, or R4500/month (US$740) for a 64Kpbs link to a Local Area
Network.
Internet Host
Sites:
Not every
domain in South Africa is registered according to the national .za domain name.
Consequently, the exact number of Internet hosts in South Africa is not known. As far as
those registered under the .za domain, it is estimated at 184,547 as of July 2000.
Internet Users:
The combined number
of all the ISPs dial-up subscriber accounts grew by over 100%, reaching 370,000 by
year-end 1998. By 1999, there were 1,820,000 users bringing the number of users per 10,000
inhabitants to 456.14 The total number of users is expected to pass the 2 million limit by
the middle of 2001, assuming aggressive competition persists between the ISPs.
Internet
Bandwidth:
International
– 400 Mbps
Local –
dial-up (analog modem) – 33.6-56Kbps, ISDN – 64Kbps, Frame Relay – varies
according to port configuration and guaranteed CIR (Committed Information Rate).
Internet Use by
Categories:
Internet use in
South Africa can be found in almost every sector – commercial, government, education,
tourism, etc. Currently 4395 South African Web sites are indexed in Yahoo! and the number
continues to grow. All government departments and ministries have established a Web site
to disseminate information regarding their activities. This can be found at: [http://www.polity.org.za/lists/govsites.html].
For links to South African business Web sites, the South African Internet Directory (SAID)
is a good source. The directory is currently hosted by UUNET Internet Africa: [http://said.iafrica.com/said/categories.htm].
Links to
Selected South African Web Sites:
Government:
Official site of the Republic of
South Africa: http://www.gov.za
Ministry of Posts,
Telecommunications and Broadcasting: http://docweb.pwv.gov.za
Ministry of Education: http://education.pwv.gov.za
Links to other government
departments: http://www.polity.org.za/lists/govsites.html
Academic/Research:
Commercial:
Associations:
NGOs/Development
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