Telecommunications in South Africa
In exchange for exclusivity (a monopoly) to provide certain services for 5 years, Telkom assumed an obligation to facilitate network modernisation and expansion into the unserved areas.
The first use of telecommunications in the Republic of South Africa was a single line telegraph connecting Cape Town and Simonstown.
In the 1960s, South Africa was connected to 72 nations and total outgoing annual international calls numbered over 28,800.
[16] In 1994, South Africa launched a mobile operations, underwritten by Telkom in partnership with Vodafone, with 36,000 active customer on the network.
The Cybersafari Digital Be-In and Internet Love-Fest linked a technology fair at Fort Mason in San Francisco[22] with a techno "rave" and cyber-deli in Woodstock, Cape Town.
For one hour, members of the public communicated with each other via a simple Picturetel system using a 128 kb ISDN line.
"Cognitive dissident" and communications activist David Robert Lewis initiated the video conference and peacecast[23] 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.
However, it still receives criticisms (see later) from smaller operators and the Competition Commission for setting South African broadband pricing in its favour[citation needed].
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 DStv.
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 Vodacom, MTN South Africa and Neotel to construct their own country and citywide fibre-optic networks.
Individual South African cities such as Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria are also in the process of, or have completed construction of city-owned fibre-optic networks.
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.
MTN South Africa was among the first mobile networks in the world to offer HSDPA services to its customers.
A SNO, Neotel, has been licensed in South Africa and is currently offering a wireless service in selected areas.
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.
[33][34] 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.
Openserve, which is 51.4% government-owned, currently has the largest footprint covering areas in many smaller cities and towns that include Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, and Knysna.
Many hotspots offer usage free of charge, though frequently only after registration and/or for a limited amount of time or data.
[citation needed] Until 1 February 2005, the usage of VoIP outside of company networks was illegal under South African communications law, ostensibly to protect jobs.
