News

The ongoing power crisis is starting to threaten one of the fundamental drivers of South Africa’s digital economy: Internet access. That’s because one of the biggest unforeseen consequences of Eskom’s persistent load shedding is the increasing failure of both telecommunications and Internet services to homes around the country.

WAPALOZA is back! With the Covid pandemic behind us, it was time to get back to brass tacks and chart the way forward for South African WISPS, and what better way to do that than at the biggest wireless industry event in the country.

Many users have challenges related to their home network, what we call the last nine yards. But, what home users and many small businesses don’t understand is that, when they sign up for connectivity, sorting out their device- or home-network related issues isn’t actually part of the package. There’s an education element missing.

That three men were handed 30-year sentences each for stealing cell tower batteries sends a clear message from South Africa’s judiciary, the intent of which WAPA supports.

Wapa executive Paul Colmer joins the TechCentral podcast (listen below) to unpack why the association has made this call, and why it believes opening up the 6GHz band to unlicensed telecommunications providers could generate huge benefits for the country.

South Africa could benefit by up to nearly $58 billion over the next 10 years by getting ICASA to enable 1,200 license-exempt megahertz in the 6GHz band, helping the country to bridge the digital divide, as well as improve access to remote education, work, and commerce.

Our members get exclusive access to the full detailed report on how to make it work. WISPS (Wireless Internet Service Providers) have a golden business opportunity while also closing the economic inequality gap in South Africa.

You could probably get more reliable, fast connectivity at a price you can afford. Of the 38 million South Africans who used the Internet as of January 2021, 36 million did so on mobile. Not all of them used mobile data (just the mobile device connected to Wi-Fi). But a lot of South Africans are using prepaid or contract data. It’s the most expensive way to connect in this country and among the most expensive worldwide.

Average revenues for Internet service providers (WISPs) who responded to the Wireless Access Provider’s Association (WAPA) survey (76% of all members) exceed R3 billion, employing 2 785 people and serving more than 200 424 home and business customers.