"Internet Access in SA 2007"

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 14 July 2007

This is the name of a study by World Wide Worx, which shows that only about 8% of the South African population (3.85-million) will have access to the Internet by the end of the year. This is despite a considerable increase in broadband usage.

According to Arthur Goldstuck, Managing Director of World Wide Worx: “Despite the dramatic rise of broadband usage, this is the slowest growth we’ve seen in overall user numbers since the arrival of the Internet in South Africa” (SA Internet access grows, but only for the haves, MyBroadband, 5 July 2007).

In other words, many people are switching to broadband but not many new ones are jumping aboard the overall Internet access bandwagon.

How many broadband subscribers will there be by the end of the year?

650 000.

‘The study reveals that there will be more than 800,000 broadband subscriber accounts active in South Africa at the end of this year. However, these represent only 650,000 unique users, or separate individuals. And, of these, a third also use another form of connectivity’ (SA Internet access grows, but only for the haves, MyBroadband, 5 July 2007).

In other words, by the end of the year there will be more than half a million broadband subscribers in South Africa.

If one read into the figures in the study it is safe to assume that many people do not have access to the Internet, and that many of those who do have Internet access will be switching to broadband from dial-up.

Is the number of dial-up users falling fast?

Yes.

‘…the number of dial-up users is falling dramatically this year, dropping by 122,000 users, and falling below the million mark for the first time since 2001’ (SA Internet access grows, but only for the haves, MyBroadband, 5 July 2007).
In other words, this year a considerable number of users are dropping dial-up for faster Internet access services.

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