The new South African internet revolution

22 September 2008

From the left: Neil Manson, Monash IT lecturer, with award winning writer Arthur Goldstuck and Sheelagh Walton, Monash IT lecturer, at a presentation held at Monash entitled ‘The New Internet Revolution’.

At a presentation on “The New Internet Revolution” hosted by the School of Information Technology at Monash South Africa last week, world-renowned internet researcher Arthur Goldstuck illustrated how South Africa’s telecommunications links to the world, relative to the rest of the world, has not changed in a century, and he examined the nature of the digital divide (those connected and those not connected) as an information divide rather than a technology divide.

Monash staff and students gained an insight into the growth of internet access in South Africa, the limitations of that growth and how a new internet revolution is about to begin in 2009 with the completion of the new Seacom undersea cable, which is expected to increase internet bandwidth 40 fold.

Goldstuck felt that the cellphone has the potential to bridge the digital divide, but that this will only come into its own from 2011 when integration from analogue to digital takes place and a TV screen can be used to navigate the internet.

From 2012 South African bandwidth will treble again with the completion of the second undersea cable. “For the information society all these developments will open a new world of opportunity,” said Goldstuck.

Goldstuck also showed that simply connecting people to the internet is not enough and that there has tended to be a five-year time lag, or experience curve, from the initial connection, to when people begin to utilise the internet fully in terms of banking, shopping, online media etc.

Goldstuck is an award-winning writer, analyst and commentator on internet, mobile and business and consumer technologies.  He heads the World Wide Worx research organisation, leading groundbreaking research into how change is affecting businesses. Clients of the research include South Africa’s major financial institutions and corporations, Government departments and international organisations.

His early research into the size of the Internet user population established the trend lines for Internet growth in this country. World Wide Worx has also provided the first market statistics for 3G and WiMAX uptake in South Africa.