South Africa’s connectivity supports growth, innovation and development
When it comes to connectivity, On Device Research said last year that South Africa has a mobile penetration of 133% - which means that the majority of people have more than one mobile phone. And Pew Research says that smartphone penetration in the country is 37% - the highest in Africa.
In addition to leading on the continent, South Africa has in many instances been the first mover (or among the first movers) globally with the roll-out of new technologies including 3G and 4G networks.
Yet the cost of data access remains a challenge for many South Africans. The networks are there, but for many they are too expensive to use in any meaningful way. But overall, the country’s world-leading coverage means that progress and innovation are forging ahead. And as data costs continue to fall, the potential for all South Africans to use data services will rise.
The statistics already bear this out. In 2016, the South African Internet user population passed the 20 million mark for the first time, reaching 21 million, and it is expected to grow to at least 22.5 million in 2017, according to the Internet Access in South Africa study conducted by World Wide Worx.
Stats SA estimates that the South African population reached 55.9 million people in June 2016, which means that the country will reach the 40% internet penetration mark this year.
Reshaad Sha, chief strategy officer of Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), which supported the Internet Access in South Africa study, says that “Finally reaching the point where we can say every second adult South African is connected to the Internet is a major landmark, because Internet access is becoming synonymous with economic access.”
South African companies are among the global leaders in areas like payment technology, but even on an individual level, people have taken the connectivity solutions available to them and used them to change their lives. In fact, in some cases, where the high costs of data have curtailed internet use over the regular channels, people have used innovative approaches to deliver online products and services with whatever infrastructure is at their disposal.
Connecting South Africa’s townships
Tshwane Free WiFi was enabled by Project Isizwe, which started in 2013 as a non-profit organisation to help municipalities to roll out public WiFi in townships so that poor communities could get access to the internet for free.
“The logic was that if the municipality puts in roads, water and electricity, they should also put in WiFi as a straight subsidy,” says founder Alan Knott-Craig. “We had to get away from the thinking that if you can’t afford the internet, you can’t have it.”
He says that the problem has always been economics – working out how to reduce the cost of the provision of the network to such a point that that the government could afford to subsidise it. “Isizwe came up with that model. We tap into fibre in the ground that’s not being utilised – like underground rivers.”
Because Isizwe was providing the solution for the Tshwane municipality, they were able to use municipal buildings to house their infrastructure and transmit the signal - without having to pay rental.
The trick was convincing the fibre cable owners that Isizwe wasn’t cannibalising a potential revenue stream in the townships, and working with the municipalities to identify suitable sites. That achieved, Isizwe went live in the City of Tshwane in November 2013 at five sites. Today, 1,076 free WiFi zones have been rolled out in Ga-Rankua, Mamelodi, Atteridgeville and Shoshanguve, and 28% of citizens in Tshwane are in walking distance of free WiFi.
“Project Isizwe has become the template for SA Connect, the government’s strategy for universal connectivity – to make sure that every South African can walk to their nearest WiFi zone, and to make internet accessible for all South Africans, not just those who can afford it,” says Knott-Craig.
The company now has projects in eight of South Africa’s nine provinces.
Internet of Things driving industry forward
There is no question that society is being reshaped by technology. And one of the key components of the fourth industrial revolution is the Internet of Things (IoT), where a network of connected devices deliver data and insights to understand consumption and use resources better.
“Quality mobile connectivity has allowed many technology solutions in South Africa to leapfrog older technologies and become leaders in their field,” says Kees Snjiders, a director at Flickswitch, a provider of IoT solutions. “Pockets of global excellence exist specifically with the security, payments or fintech and asset management sectors. These are driven by specific demands that challenges in Africa present which can be addressed by technology such as the IoT.”
One such area is agriculture. Earlier this year, Dark Fibre Africa’s Sha wrote for the Financial Mail that in the near future, nations’ growing populations will be fed by crops that are smartly planted at the right time and in precisely the right place to produce maximum yield.
“Using the IoT, farmers will be informed via connected sensors of the precise dosage of water, fertiliser and nutrients that the piece of cultivated land will need to produce an optimal yield in terms of volume and quality,” he said.
While South Africa is nowhere close to achieving that yet, elements of such a system are coming into play. Aquacheck, with Flickswitch’s support, has developed a soil moisture probe system that measures soil moisture content at different depths and transmits the data to farmers so they can water crops where and when it is necessary. Interestingly, it’s happening on the back of the 2G networks that service much of the country’s rural population.
It is these kinds of innovations that will be carrying industry in South Africa into the future. While the digital divide still needs to be bridged for many South Africans, the infrastructure to support their emergence into the connected world is ready to carry them.
