CAPE TOWN: South Africa has a set of ambitious targets laid out in its national broadband policy, South Africa Connect, which includes achieving 50% internet coverage with speeds of 5 Mbps by 2016; roughly 90% coverage at the same speeds by 2020; 50% coverage with speeds of 100 Mbps by 2020; and universal 100 Mbps coverage by 2030.
As a result, the country has emphasised improvements in both last-mile and backbone infrastructure. The country’s average speed was 4.1 Mbps in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to the “Q4 2015 State of the Internet” report issued by Akamai Technologies, a US content delivery network and cloud services provider. This fell short of the global average of 5.6 Mbps.
Significantly, however, the report noted that South Africa’s average broadband speed increased by 26% year-on-year in 2015 and was up 11% during the fourth quarter, surpassing the 4-Mbps mark for the first time. The South Africa Connect policy also targets enhanced connectivity at schools, medical facilities and public institutions, emphasising public-private partnerships such as the Broadband for All initiative to achieve these targets.