Telecommunications infrastructure in South Africa provides modern and efficient service to urban areas, including cellular and internet services. The

Independent Communications Authority of South Africa The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is an independent regulatory body of the South African government, established in 2000 by the ICASA Act to regulate both the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors in the publ ...

(ICASA) is the watchdog of the telecommunications in the country. In 1997, Telkom, the South African telecommunications

parastatal A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the government ...

, was partly privatised and entered into a strategic equity partnership with a consortium of two companies, including SBC, a U.S. telecommunications company. In exchange for exclusivity (a

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

) to provide certain services for 5 years, Telkom assumed an obligation to facilitate network modernisation and expansion into the unserved areas. A Second Network Operator was to be licensed to compete with Telkom across its spectrum of services in 2002, although this license was only officially handed over in late 2005 and has recently begun operating under the name,

Neotel Neotel, previously SNO Telecommunications, is the second national operator (SNO) for fixed line telecommunication services in South Africa. It was unveiled on 31 August 2006 in Kyalami in northern Johannesburg. Neotel is South Africa's first dir ...

. South Africa has four licensed mobile operators: MTN, Vodacom (majority owned by the UK’s

Vodafone Vodafone Group plc () is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. , Vod ...

), Cell C (75% owned by Saudi Oger, an international telecommunications holdings firm), and 8ta, a subsidiary of Telkom. In 2012, mobile penetration was estimated at more than 10%, one of the highest rates in the world. In 2019, mobile penetration reached 95%. Mobile market in South Africa is controlled by four cellular providers:

Vodacom Vodacom Group Limited is a South-Western African mobile communications company, providing voice, messaging, data and converged services to over 55 million customers. From its roots in South Africa, Vodacom has grown its operations to include ...

, MTN,

Cell C Cell C Limited (stylised as Cell ©) is as a private mobile operator based in Sandstone, South Africa. It was founded in November 2001 by Lambert Moloi. As of August 2019, the Company’s current CEO is Douglas Craigie Stevenson. Challenger ...

, Telkom (Mobile), which is run by Telkom, With Vodacom and MTN controlling the 75% of the market share, ICASA considers that mobile brand services are highly concentrated in the country. a new provider, Rain launched in 2018 providing majority data only services to consumers.

History

The first use of

telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that ...

in the

Republic of South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countr ...

was a single line

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

connecting

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

and Simonstown. The first telegraph was launched on 2 December 1859, and the Cape of Good Hope Telegraph Company opened the line in April 1860. At about the time of the

Bell Telephone Company The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 1877, by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who also helped organize a sister company – the New Engl ...

's development of the telephone industry post-1876, early

undersea The underwater environment is the region below the surface of, and immersed in, liquid water in a natural or artificial feature (called a body of water), such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, reservoir, river, canal, or aquifer. Some characterist ...

telegraph links were introduced, first connecting

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

and Europe, and later connecting the country to the rest of the world. In 1879, the first submarine cable system that connected South Africa with Europe started to work, through the East Coast cable of the South African Telegraph Company, a single channel cable. In 1889, the first West Coast submarine cable from Cape Town to Europe was installed. The 1584 nm cable provided by CS Scotia was linked with West African Telegraph Companies' cables. Telcon carried out the links. Another cable to Cape Town was laid in 1899 during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the So ...

, this time from

Ascension Island Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56′ south of the Equator in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is about from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America. It is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory of ...

, by the Eastern Telegraph Company (later

Cable & Wireless plc Cable & Wireless plc was a British telecommunications company. In the mid-1980s, it became the first company in the UK to offer an alternative telephone service to British Telecom (via subsidiary Mercury Communications). The company later of ...

). In the mid-twentieth century undersea telephone cables were also commissioned. In 1968, the SAT-1 cable was laid. It connected from Melkbosstrand, South Africa to

Sesimbra Sesimbra () is a municipality of Portugal, in the Setúbal District, lying at the foothills of the ''Serra da Arrábida'', a mountain range between Setúbal and Sesimbra. Due to its particular position at the Setúbal Bay, near the mouth of the S ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

. The network continued to develop through internal financing in a heavily regulated market as international technology developed. At this point, telephone services were operated by the

South African Post Office South African Post Office (SA Post Office) is the national postal service of South Africa and as a state owned enterprise, its only shareholder is the South African government. In terms of South African law, the Post Office is the only entit ...

. In the 1960s, South Africa was connected to 72 nations and total outgoing annual international calls numbered over 28,800. Telkom was incorporated on 30 September 1991 as a public limited liability company registered under the South African Companies Act, 61 of 1973, as amended. In 1993 GSM was demonstrated for the first time in Africa at Telkom '93 in Cape Town. In 1994 the first GSM networks in Africa were launched in South Africa. In 1994, South Africa launched a mobile operations, underwritten by Telkom in partnership with

, with 36,000 active customer on the network. This subsidiary grew to be

, which Telkom sold in late 2008 in preference for its own 3G network.

has a subscriber base of more than R45M, with an

average revenue per user Average revenue per user (ARPU), sometimes known as average revenue per unit, is a measure used primarily by consumer communications, digital media, and networking companies, defined as the total revenue divided by the number of subscribers. The t ...

of more than R60 across both rural and urban subscribers. Vodacom, together with the other operators, have come under criticism in late 2009 by government and the public for high interconnect charges. This issue was currently being discussed by the Parliamentary Committee on Telecommunications. The first public

videoconference Videotelephony, also known as videoconferencing and video teleconferencing, is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio signal, audio and video signals by people in different locations for Real-time, real time communication. ...

between the continent of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

occurred on 24 June 1995 (2:00-3:00 p.m. PST). The Cybersafari Digital Be-In and Internet Love-Fest linked a technology fair at Fort Mason in San Francisco with a techno "

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mu ...

" and cyber-deli in Woodstock,

. For one hour, members of the public communicated with each other via a simple Picturetel system using a 128kb ISDN line. "Cognitive dissident" and communications activist David Robert Lewis initiated the video conference and peacecast on the San Francisco side, and Freddie Bell answered the call in Woodstock, Cape Town. Because of different ISDN standards, a video bridge via Boston was used to achieve the link, which also featured interactive dancing. Organisations which took credit were technology sponsors Picturetel and Telkom, plus Peacecast organisers Unity 95, Parallel University, Vortex, Creativity Cafe and line producer "Cybersafari to Africa". In 2004, the Department of Communications redefined the Electronics Communications Act, which consolidated and redefined the landscape of telecommunications licensing in South Africa (both mobile and fixed). The Independent Communications Authority (ICASA) currently licenses more than 400 independent operators with the Electronic Communications Network License (with the ability to self-provision) as well as issuing Electronic Communications Service Licenses for service deployment over infrastructure in the retail domain. Telkom is no longer the single operator in South Africa, and faces competition from the second Fixed Network Operator Licensee, Neotel, as well as the four mobile operators, Vodacom, MTN, Cell-C and Rain. However, it still receives criticisms (see later) from smaller operators and the Competition Commission for setting South African broadband pricing in its favour. In 2020, MTN, Vodacom and Rain launched 5G network in South Africa.

Television

Four main television stations are available to the public. These are namely

SABC 1 SABC 1 is a South African public television network operated by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) which carries programming in English and Nguni. It was created in 1996, after the SABC restructured its television channels. SABC ...

SABC 2 SABC 2 is a South African family public television channel owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). SABC 2 broadcasts programming in English, Sepedi, Afrikaans, Venda, and Tsonga. As of August 2018, the channel started broad ...

SABC 3 SABC 3 (stylised as S3) is a South African free-to-air public television network owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). It carries programming in English and, few in other South African languages. It has a number of its own r ...

and eTV. Other community-based stations are also on offer, such as

Soweto TV Soweto Community Television (Soweto TV) is a South African community television channel broadcasting in the biggest township in South Africa, Soweto. The channel is free-to-air in Gauteng Province and it also broadcast to South African subscribe ...

and Cape Town TV (ctv).

DStv Digital Satellite Television, commonly abbreviated to DStv, is a Sub-Saharan African direct broadcast satellite service owned by MultiChoice and based in Randburg, South Africa. Launched on 6 October 1995, the service provides multiple audio, ...

is currently South Africa's only operating and Africa's largest satellite television provider. The company provides over 100 video and over 78 audio channels, and in 2008 introduced its first HD video channel. Since then an additional five HD channels have been introduced - namely M-Net HD, SuperSport HD,

Discovery HD Discovery HD is the international name of the high-definition television channels owned by Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. The international Discovery HD (later Discovery HD World in Asia-Pacific markets, n ...

, SuperSport HD 2, M-Net Movies 1 HD and SuperSport HD 3. In 2008, additional pay-TV licenses were granted to various companies in South Africa. As of January 2010, none of the companies granted a license have begun providing services. However, On Digital Media (ODM), have stated that they are on track to begin sale of their product in May 2010, and that prices will be significantly cheaper than their competitor

. In 2012, DSTV now has added 8 more channels all for movies.

Internet

Although expensive compared to more developed nations,

broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

is easily obtainable in South Africa. Fixed line options such as

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the digitalised circuits of the public switched telephone network. Work ...

, Diginet and Leased Lines are available from the national operator Telkom. Recently, legislation was passed by government allowing all licensed telecommunications providers to build their own fixed line networks, resulting in a scramble by companies such as

, MTN South Africa and

to construct their own country and citywide fibre-optic networks. Individual South African cities such as

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

and

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothi ...

are also in the process of, or have completed construction of city-owned

fibre-optic network Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of infrared light through an optical fiber. The light is a form of carrier wave that is modulated to carry information. Fiber is pref ...

s. These will provide services to city and government-owned establishments, and will act as an extra source of income through the sale of excess bandwidth mainly to companies. Wireless options are available from

Sentech Sentech is the signal distributor for the South African broadcasting sector. Background Sentech began operations in 1992 as the signal distributor of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). Sentech's mandate also included providi ...

iBurst IEEE 802.20 or Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) was a specification by the standard association of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for mobile broadband networks. The main standard was published in 2008. MBWA ...

, MTN,

, Telkom and a number of other ISP's. They typically provide speeds of up to 7.6 Mbit/s with HSDPA. HSUPA is also available. MTN South Africa was among the first mobile networks in the world to offer HSDPA services to its customers. Satellite options are available from both Sentech and Telkom. A SNO,

, has been licensed in South Africa and is currently offering a wireless service in selected areas. According to Neotel, up-take of its services has exceeded expectations, and as a result Neotel are rapidly expanding services throughout major metropolitan areas in South Africa. In 2009, SEACOM - the second undersea cable to land in South Africa - jointly owned and operated by Neotel - was switched on. Neotel have stated that sale of SEACOM bandwidth, too, has exceeded expectations, and will drive the continual downward-spiral of internet prices in the country. As of January 2010, South Africa has over 2 million broadband subscribers. Whilst this is the largest number in Africa, South Africa's broadband penetration of 4% is significantly below international standards.

Broadband

ADSL

In late 2009, Telkom began trialling 8 and 12 Mbit/s ADSL offerings. In August 2010, Telkom officially introduced ADSL at 10 Mbit/s. More than 20,000 4Mbit/s subscribers were upgraded free of charge. As of October 2018, fixed line DSL speeds on offer range between 2 Mbit/s to 40 Mbit/s.

Fibre to the home (FTTH)

Currently Openserve (a division of Telkom), Vumatel, MTN, and Broadband Infraco are among the providers rolling out fibre to the home (FTTH) networks across major cities and towns. There are also about a dozen other small providers rolling out mostly to gated estates and neighbourhoods. These networks are open access wholesale last mile networks meaning that you have to purchase a package from an

internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise priva ...

(ISP) such as Vox, Webafrica, Axxess, or Telkom. Openserve, which is 51.4%

government-owned State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownership ...

, currently has the largest footprint covering areas in many smaller cities and towns that include

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legislative capital Cape To ...

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, So ...

, and

Knysna Knysna () is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. and is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It lies at 34° 2' 6.3168'' S and 23° 2' 4 ...

. Most of these providers offer additional high-end business services such as web hosting. The rollout has been rapid. Speeds range from 4/1 Mbit/s to 1000/1000 Mbit/s. A 100/50 Mbit/s plan will cost R900 to R1050 (US$ to $) depending on providers available in area and size of data package. An unlimited 1 Gbit/s/1 Gbit/s plan will cost around R1700 ($) so prices are still somewhat expensive when compared to other countries with FTTH but prices have been continually falling throughout the rollout. Comparatively,

Google Fiber Google Fiber is part of the Access division of Alphabet Inc. It provides fiber-to-the-premises service in the United States, providing broadband Internet and IPTV to a small and slowly increasing number of locations. In mid-2016, Google Fiber ...

charges consumers $70 for an unlimited (uncapped) 1000/400 Mbit/s in the US.

Pricing

Broadband services are well above the world average. Charges consist of three parts: the ADSL line rental (costs range from R169 for 2 Mbit/s, R389 for 8Mbit/s, and R555 for 40Mbit/s line access), the analogue phone line rental (R157, as of August 2013, which includes a landline number) and an ISP account. The price of an ISP account can vary greatly, ranging from R109 ($) for 100 GB to R4099 ($) for 4 TB. Uncapped 1 Mbit/s ISP accounts start at R57 ($) and can range up to R817 ($) for uncapped 40 Mbit/s.

Wireless

There is a distinction between

wireless broadband Wireless broadband is telecommunications technology that provides high-speed wireless Internet access or computer networking access over a wide area. The term comprises both fixed and mobile broadband. The term broadband Originally the wor ...

and

mobile broadband Mobile broadband is the marketing term for wireless Internet access via mobile networks. Access to the network can be made through a portable modem, wireless modem, or a tablet/ smartphone (possibly tethered) or other mobile device. The fir ...

, the local GSM operators (and their surrogates) provide

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

(up to LTE) broadband. A number of companies offer broadband alternatives.

Iburst IEEE 802.20 or Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) was a specification by the standard association of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for mobile broadband networks. The main standard was published in 2008. MBWA ...

offer their namesake, while cellular network company

offer

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Ins ...

and

EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...

and more recently a 21.1 Mbit/s service. MTN and

also offer 3G with up to 21.1 Mbit/s HSDPA+. Telkom offers a 7.2/2.4 Mbit/s HSDPA/HSUPA service in Gauteng. Most of these offerings are more expensive than ADSL for mid-to-high usage, but can be cost effective if low usage is required. MTN triggered a price war in late February 2007, offering 2 GB for each 1 GB bought, with Iburst giving a small "data bonus" to their contract customers and Sentech also reducing their prices. Vodacom responded with dramatic price cuts of their own on 1 April 2007, after which Cell C reduced prices on their larger offerings to undercut both MTN and Vodacom. Internet hotspots are ubiquitous in hotels, coffee shops, and the like. This enables users—often tourists or people on the move—to easily go online without having to enter into a fixed contract with an ISP. Many hotspots offer usage free of charge, though frequently only after registration and/or for a limited amount of time or data.

Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP)

Until 1 February 2005, the usage of

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...

outside of company networks was illegal under South African communications law, ostensibly to protect jobs. The deregulation of VoIP was announced by former Minister of Communications

Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri Ivy Florence Matsepe-Casaburri (18 September 1937 – 6 April 2009) was a South African politician. She was the second premier of the Free State and South Africa's Minister of Communications from 1999 until her death. She served briefly as ...

in September 2004.

1G

1G used to be offered by Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Telkom. Since then all 1G cell towers in South Africa have been repurposed as 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G infrastructure or decommissioned.

2G

South Africa offers GSM 900 and GSM 1800 with almost 99% coverage. So far Vodacom has shown interest in turning off their 2G network, but it is still operating today

3G

South Africa offers UMTS 900 and UMTS 2100 with 99.7% of the population having coverage.

4G/LTE

South Africa offers LTE 1800, LTE 2100 and LTE 2300. Voorstedelike telekommunikasietorings, Moreleta Park, a

LTE Coverage by carrier 2020

5G

Carriers Vodacom and MTN both offer 5G 3500 and launched in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

References

External links

*
Neotel

SA Telecoms and Communications News
{{Telecommunications