The Internet is quietly being replumbed. That shouldn’t surprise anyone involved with it; the Internet is always being replumbed. But you might be more surprised to learn that the next few years will bring an unusual burst of changes in that plumbing, some with great potential consequences for anyone who relies on the Net. By its plumbing, I’m referring to the protocols and software that make the core features of the Internet work. These have been evolving steadily since 1969, but I don’t think any period since the early 1980s has experienced as much change as we’ll see over the next few years.
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It’s long been government’s desire to bridge the digital divide, to get communications technology in the hands of the rural poor. But its every attempt to address the problem has failed. Now commercial operators may achieve what government couldn’t. The late Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, the former communications minister, had her heart in the right place. She genuinely wanted people in underserviced areas to get access to the latest communications technology.
The apparent collapse of pay-TV operator Super 5 Media is unfortunate. It means less chance of the kind of rivalry that fosters innovation and drives down prices. At the top end of the market, however, competition to DStv may come from a less obvious source. Super 5 Media, formerly known as Telkom Media, was cursed almost from the start. When Telkom, under former CEO Reuben September, decided to end its investment, the writing was already on the wall.
South Africans once regarded Neotel as having the real potential to offer a competitive alternative to Telkom in residential services. But as the company releases an uninspired prepaid retail offering this month, that dream already appears to have faded.
SA’s cellular communications market is about to get a big shake-up as two players, one new, Telkom Mobile, and one reinvigorated, Cell C, get ready to go toe to toe with each other and incumbents MTN and Vodacom. SA’s smallest mobile operator, Cell C, has never had an easy time of it. Launched a decade ago after a particularly troubled birth, the operator has faced an uphill battle against dominant incumbents MTN and Vodacom.
Deputy home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba wants to introduce legislation that will compel Internet service providers to block pornographic material online. It’s all in the name of protecting the children, of course. According to a Sapa wire report last week, Gigaba intends “fast-tracking the passage of a yet-to-be-drafted law that will compel In- ternet service providers to filter content pro- vided to users to ensure it does not contain any pornography”.
Three years ago, when the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) licensed three new pay-TV players, most of us couldn’t wait to see something super. Four new companies were given a chance to bring new shows to SA’s TV screens. Most importantly, they were supposed to provide competition to the incumbent monopoly, MultiChoice.
When it comes to the latest handsets, consumers want to know more about the software they’re buying than the hardware specifications of the phone itself. This is driving big competitive changes in the smartphone market and reshaping an industry. A few years ago, buying a cellphone was a relatively trivial exercise.
When I arrived at Jeremy Ord’s office last Friday — the day after news that the group he cofounded and now chairs, Dimension Data, was being bought out for R24,4bn by a Japanese corporate giant — he was looking relaxed. Having just flown back from London that morning, Ord appeared a little tired but entirely laid-back in jeans, takkies and an old jumper. The TV in his office, tuned in to the British Open, had the attention of the 54- year-old golfing and cycling enthusiast.
When former head of the SA National Defence Force, Gen (Ret) Siphiwe Nyanda, was appointed as minister of communications last year, there was much grumbling. “What does a military man know about communications?” quickly became the general sentiment.