SADC ICT Shift: The future is broadband

Lazarus Sauti

The 21st Century thrives on information and communication technologies, as they have transformed societies and businesses.

Supported by broadband, countries cannot only close the digital divide but also accelerate economic and social transformation. This is so because broadband is the next vehicle in economic transformation.

“It (broadband) permits instant access to nearly unlimited sources of information globally, and the knowledge provided through such easy access to information is creating unprecedented opportunities and having a dramatic impact on the way people live and work,” asserts Mohsen A Khalil, Director of the Global Information and Communication Technologies Department at the World Bank Group.

Sharing same views, an expert in technology, Joseph Tegbe, adds: “Broadband creates an enabling environment for businesses and governments.

It improves overall productivity and creates jobs – jobs such as the construction works, trenching, laying of fibre-optic lines and installation of wireless towers will increase as broadband penetration increases.”

Tegbe goes on to say: “Broadband penetration will help promote and fund entrepreneurship and information technology initiatives and allow for a more skilled workforce that can take up outsourced information technology jobs in major institutions.

“It also creates a knowledge economy to support e-health care and e-education provision which are managed by content providers of such services.”

The Southern African Development Community region, however, has been largely left behind in the shift to broadband as the cost and quality of broadband access in most – if not all – member states leaves a lot to be desired.

A study by Point Topic, the leading resource for worldwide broadband, Internet Protocol Television and Voice over Internet Protocol market intelligence, notes that the global average of broadband pricing is US$75 a month while Africans pay up to US$200.

The broadband statistics and analysis firm further notes that countries in Africa have the slowest internet in the world, and this slow and poor access to broadband in this 21st Century is equated to poor mobility in the 19th Century by Strive Masiyiwa, founder and chairman of Econet Zimbabwe.

However, in his book “Broadband for Africa: Developing Backbone Communications Networks”, Mark DJ Williams believes that despite comparatively low rates of broadband connectivity, there is considerable potential for broadband growth in the SADC region.

“Conducive policy environments, investment in network infrastructure, access to radio spectrum, and availability of affordable international bandwidth will all play key roles in the delivery of low-cost broadband to the region,” asserts Williams.

Countries within and across the SADC region should therefore embrace broadband, and its development should not be seen in isolation but must be integrally linked to the implementation of development strategies for both individual countries and across the region as a whole.

To effectively strengthen interventions in education, health, housing and agriculture, countries must ensure that broadband connections with open-access fibres exist between all SADC member states and their major cities, along with at least one Internet exchange point in each member states.

Increasing the availability and affordability of broadband services is the region also requires major efforts from both governments and the private sector.

Accordingly, leaders in the region should encourage private sector participation in ICT infrastructure, whether through independent investment or public-private partnerships to raise the much needed financial resources.

To foster sustainable social and economic development, it is also critical for SADC member states to minimise broadband costs by sharing infrastructure and equipment where applicable, while maximising reliability through increased infrastructural redundancy.

Without doubt, minimising broadband costs can greatly lessen infrastructure discrepancy in the region.

“Affordable access to quality broadband internet cannot make up for an infrastructure deficit, but it can greatly mitigate it,” notes Esaja Blog.

Proper investment in network infrastructure also requires the SADC region to undertake a wide-ranging review of policies across education, science, technology and innovation, to enhance efforts to build the knowledge economy.

Policies and strategies should be in sync with other relevant SADC protocols and international instruments to provide the basis for the harmonisation across the broad information and communications technologies sector, which lays the foundation for integrated ICT development and adoption of broadband across the region.

The time is also ripe for SADC member states to set up national e-governance academies and knowledge portals on e-governance in their respective countries to increase the use of broadband capacity and at the same time to propagate access to information in all areas.

This means countries must extend the broadband facility to every village in their states, and they should simply do this by setting up internet enabled centres in rural areas.

SADC countries need transformation to integrate services and change the face of the region.

Therefore, political and business leaders in the region must provide core information technology infrastructure and the uptake of broadband should always be high on the agenda of all developmental activities.