The number of Internet users in SA is growing strongly for the first time in years, new research from World Wide Worx has shown, as a result of a more liberalised and competitive market.

SA now has more than 5m Internet users, finally breaking through the 10% mark in Internet penetration for the country, says World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck.

This is the key finding of the company’s Internet Access in SA 2010 study. The headline data shows that the Internet user base grew by 15% last year, from 4,6m to 5,3m, and is expected to grow at a similar rate in 2010.

“The good news is that we will continue to see strong growth in 2010, and we should reach the 6m mark by the end of the year,” says Goldstuck.

Internet subscriber was stagnant from 2002 to 2007, when it never rose above 7%. However, this rate almost doubled in 2008, and continued accelerating in 2009.

The Seacom cable, connecting SA with Europe along Africa’s east coast, was only one of a range of factors behind the growth.

Of greater significance was the granting of network licences to more than 400 service providers. The result was that a market previously characterised by a limited range of providers and services suddenly exploded as small providers were able to repackage the services provided by the large telecommunications corporations in any way they wished. The large providers, in turn, began to offer far more competitive packages to both customers and resellers.

World Wide Worx found that a second key factor in growth over the past two years has been the continued uptake of broadband connectivity by small and medium enterprises migrating from dial-up connectivity. Each company moving from dial-up to ADSL, for example, extended Internet access to general office staff. This process was found to add an additional one to 20 new users to the Internet user base for every small business installing ADSL. — Staff reporter, TechCentral