The State of Ict in South Africa
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THE STATE OF ICT IN SOUTH AFRICA ALISON GILLWALD, ONKOKAME MOTHOBI AND BROC RADEMAN ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was made possible by the support received from Canada’s International Development Research Centre and the South African Domain Name Authority (ZADNA). The nationally representative ICT access and use survey referenced in this report forms part of a survey of 16 countries in the Global South (seven in Africa) that canvasses barriers to access from those not connected, as well as the challenges to optimal Internet usage even where there is coverage or the individual has connectivity (see After Access 2017). The authors thank Charley Lewis for peer reviewing, but errors and omissions remain those of the authors. Policy Paper no. 5, Series 5: After Access State of ICT in South Africa https://researchictafrica.net/after-access-south-africa-state-of-ict-2017-south-africa-report_04/ July 2018 SERIES EDITOR: ALISON GILLWALD Assistant-to-editor: Broc Rademan Peer-review: Charley Lewis Alison Gillwald | [email protected] Research ICT Africa 409 The Studios, Old Castle Brewery, 6 Beach Road, Woodstock, 7925, Cape Town, South Africa Tel: +27 21 447 6332 | Fax: +27 21 447 9529 International Development Research Centre Centre de reserches pour le développement international 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY There is extensive evidence now that, as technology • stimulating demand through the provision of evolves from basic voice services to that of broad- affordable access, but requiring further devel- band, the value of networks increases exponentially opment of relevant local content, applications, with significant multiplier effects impacting positively education and e-skills that would enable the on economic growth and individual well-being under inclusion of people not only as consumers, but as the right conditions. It is the evolution of such technol- producers; and ogy that has produced innovation such as the Internet • creating an enabling environment for platforms, of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. These e-services and applications to proliferate by have the potential to reduce labour and transactional creating a safe, secure and trusted environment for costs, increase productivity and information flows digital participation through the development of in the economy and, in the resource-constrained an integrated cyberpolicy and legal framework that environments of developing countries, overcome safeguards citizens’ rights. logistical bottlenecks and corruption in supply-chain This will require shifting digital policy from the management and administrative processes. silos in which it currently resides into a national inte- For countries to harness these technologies for grated policy, requiring high levels of co-ordination the development of their economies and societies, between the state, private sector and civil society. they will need to address the new array of new policy issues affecting the creation of a ‘trust’ environment HIGH OPPORTUNITY COSTS OF for the use of these Internet-based services and POLICY AND REGULATORY DELAYS applications and new competition issues in the plat- On paper, South Africa has long recognised commu- form or ‘gig’ economy while attending to the many nications networks as the backbone of the modern unresolved, legacy policy issues. These include: economy and society. The National Development • creating environments for investing in constant- Plan (2011: 2) provides a framework in which to ly-evolving technologies that are needed to realise South Africa’s vision that by 2030 “…a provide high-speed and good quality infrastructure widespread broadband communication system and services on which these innovations and will underpin a dynamic and connected vibrant global competitiveness depend; information society and a knowledge economy that • ensuring that markets are effectively regulated is more inclusive, equitable and prosperous.“ Yet, to provide services competitively, but flexibly, to national commitments to ICTs that followed the enable innovations in services and products that NDP in the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating might reduce costs, enable access or improve Commission via the national broadband policy intensity of use; and plan, SA Connect, have failed to meet their set • ensuring that deployment of services and applica- targets or make significant progress to meet speci- tions are inclusively developmental; fied objectives. • implementing strategies identified in SA Connect This is attributable to multiple factors, not least to incentivise investment in under-serviced areas of all to the discontinuity in policy formulation and through the aggregation of public-sector demand; sectoral leadership with the appointment of no fewer • enabling complementary access strategies, such than six ministers to oversee the then Department of as free public Wi-Fi, extension of licence exempt Communications between 2009 and 2014, along with spectrum, enabling community access and small- four directors-general. This resulted in the failure cell networks; to conclude enabling strategies such as the digital EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 migration process and meeting the International to deal with fast-changing global developments, Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) 2015 cut-off — or to harness them for developmental outcomes. despite being the continental leader when it started Longstanding conflicts of interest within the insti- the process in 2000 — that should have unleashed tutional arrangements have been compounded the digital dividend spectrum for 4G and delivered by political appointments, sometimes without the digital broadcasting to the country. This protracted technical or governance expertise required for ICASA process has now been overtaken by developments and the Universal Service and Access Agency of including the growth of the Internet; the reduced South Africa (USAASA) to fulfil their vital roles in the cost of satellite that could affordably offer direct-to- implementation of policy. home, free-to-air services; and the rise of multiple The promulgation of the long-outstanding issue low-cost online content carriers. Arguably, this of enabling the rapid deployment of broadband has rendered the expensive pilots and networks infrastructure, such as spectrum trading and the for national digital transmission redundant, and ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ principle that would enable more the costly legal suits by broadcasters exploiting, or efficient use of spectrum, were welcomed in submis- perhaps inducing, several policy flip-flops pointless. sions made to the DTPS. The proposal of an, at one The opportunity costs to the country of not point exclusive, wireless open access network as the addressing the raft of critical unattended policy recipient of all high-demand spectrum in the 2.6GHz issues, including the rapid deployment guidelines, and digital dividend bands, has received far more of identified as key to the extension of broadband a mixed response. This is largely due to the lack of and the release of high-demand spectrum neces- clarity about how this might feasibly operate, and sary for 4G deployment, which the Independent the negative impacts this could have on the massive Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) investments being made by operators to grow South sought to auction but was thwarted by operators and Africa’s mobile broadband market. Intentions in the Ministry of Communications more than six years the Bill to abolish all the existing statutory bodies, ago, have been high. Subsequent to the estab- and replace them with a new ‘Economic Regulator’ lishment of a Policy Review Panel to conduct the have also been challenged largely on the ground of complex policy review exercise, the rapid succession its accountability to DTPS, which would exacerbate of six ministers and four directors-general from 2009 existing conflicts of interest in the current institu- to 2014 warped the exercise. The intermittent arrest tional arrangements. The clawing back some of the of the process was compounded by the splitting of spectrum regulatory aspects of spectrum assignment the Communications Ministry and Department in has also being challenged in this context. 2014, which had both it and the new Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS) MARKET DEVELOPMENTS inwardly-focussed instead of externally, at a critical Relatively well-integrated into the global economy, time in the development of the sector. As a result, and powerfully driven by rapidly-changing the arising green paper was only turned into the technological and economic developments, the official and controversial government White Paper private sector has not waited for the protracted in 2016, which now provides the basis for a raft policy processes being formulated to deal with of legal amendments including the Electronic this dynamic sector, which increasingly cuts Communications Amendment Bill that was the across all other sectors. Network operators have subject of public consultation earlier in 2018. found innovative ways of overcoming policy and Likewise, the failure to develop the integrated regulatory bottlenecks and exploited opportuni- e-strategy required by the 2005 Electronic ties to deploy technologies to meet South Africa Communications Act, in anticipation of the emerging diverse needs. Competition in the international broadband ecosystem for over the past decade, left transmission market has proliferated with the the country without a co-ordinated plan of action landing of multiple