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Still in Pursuit of the Fast Lane: The Crawl to Broadband Freedom

Still in Pursuit of the Fast Lane: The Crawl to Broadband Freedom

Justin Henley Beneke
Copyright: © 2011 |Pages: 21
ISBN13: 9781609600112|ISBN10: 1609600118|ISBN13 Softcover: 9781609600129|EISBN13: 9781609600136
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-011-2.ch001
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MLA

Beneke, Justin Henley. "Still in Pursuit of the Fast Lane: The Crawl to Broadband Freedom." Adoption, Usage, and Global Impact of Broadband Technologies: Diffusion, Practice and Policy, edited by Yogesh K. Dwivedi, IGI Global, 2011, pp. 1-21. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60960-011-2.ch001

APA

Beneke, J. H. (2011). Still in Pursuit of the Fast Lane: The Crawl to Broadband Freedom. In Y. Dwivedi (Ed.), Adoption, Usage, and Global Impact of Broadband Technologies: Diffusion, Practice and Policy (pp. 1-21). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60960-011-2.ch001

Chicago

Beneke, Justin Henley. "Still in Pursuit of the Fast Lane: The Crawl to Broadband Freedom." In Adoption, Usage, and Global Impact of Broadband Technologies: Diffusion, Practice and Policy, edited by Yogesh K. Dwivedi, 1-21. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2011. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60960-011-2.ch001

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Abstract

South Africa may be renowned for its natural attractions, warm climate and fine wine. But certainly not for high quality broadband. The country has fallen behind its international peers – both developing and developed markets – in the race to rollout Internet connectivity. In fact, even within the African continent, it is neither a leader nor progressive in comparison to its North African counterparts. This chapter aims to provide a chronology of the major developments in the provision of broadband Internet services in South Africa, as well as touching on the challenges faced in bringing this phenomenon into the mainstream. Reasons for the lack of diffusion and adoption of such services point to high end user costs of the service, a limited geographical footprint of both fixed-line and mobile broadband infrastructure, as well as a lack of computer literacy and understanding of what broadband is able to offer. The chapter continues to look at possible solutions including introducing a greater degree of competition into the market to facilitate downward pressure on prices, provisioning further international bandwidth through undersea fibre optic cables, as well as the unbundling of the local loop, to further this objective.

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