WORLDWIDE MARKET RESEARCH REPORT - CISE

EC/IST FP6 Project No 026920
Work Package: 6
Type of document: Report
Date: 20.12.2007
File name: OP_WP6_D37_V1.0.doc Version: 1.0
Title: Worldwide Market Research Report 240 / 356
night). Furthermore, many tax regimes still treat computers and cellular telephones as luxury
items, which makes these imported items all the more expensive.
Even in South Africa, less of 10% of households have a PC, and this fraction is not likely to
grow beyond 15-20% in the medium term.
[A47] The country aims for at least 5 million broadband users, amounting to a 10%
penetration, over the next few years. Seen in the context of the current low fixed-line
teledensity, this seems an impossible target; seen relative to mobile, it is certainly
achievable. In reality, reaching such a target would require much more than investment in
telecommunications. For a start, the number of computers (or similar smart terminal
devices), and the number of computer-literate people would have to rise to similar levels.
Before thinking about the possibility to bring the internet access to million of Africans, it
would need before to bring them electricity and computers. The African legislation in this
sense doesn't help.
The points of strength of the other technologies
There are presently several broadband technologies options for rolling out a broadband
infrastructure on the African continent: wireless technologies, including satellite, wire-line
technologies (such as optical fibre networks, but also power line communications) and a
combination of these.
[A47] The idea of delivering broadband access using wireless technology has been around a
long time. However, it is only now that it is becoming practical and cost-effective to do so.
The first broadband wireless networks were high-end, line-of-sight systems that largely
replaced point-to-point microwave links. Today’s broadband wireless systems are non-line-
of-sight systems with increasingly mobile capability, and declining equipment prices. New
wireless technologies will provide true broadband access speeds and Quality of Service. The
front-runner today appears to be the Wi-MAX standard, an alignment between IEEE 802.16
and ETSI HiperMan which has the support of virtually all of the major vendors in the industry,
and is being tested by numerous operators world-wide. There is certainly good reason to