SACF Press Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Supporting the inclusion of a internet access on Set Top Boxes for South Africa’s Digital Terrestrial Television Migration

The South African Communications Forum, speaking on behalf of the majority of the companies active in the South African Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry, urges the Department of Communications to include internet access as a compulsory requirement in its Request for Proposals (RFP) concerning the supply of subsidised set top boxes (STBs) for the masses of economically marginalized South Africans.

The rationale for this broad ICT industry position is as follows:

1.    Bridging the Digital Divide. In its 2011 survey of South African households, Stats SA found that just 9.8% of South African households had access to the internet at home. With the spread of smart phones and other hand-held devices that can access the internet, the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations affiliate responsible for ICTs, estimates that the number of households with at least one member able to access the internet from home has risen to 18%. The consequences of such low internet user penetration represents a significant barrier to both economic and social development:

a.    In today’s information-driven knowledge society, SACF and its members believe that this unacceptably low level of internet penetration represents a significant barrier to South Africa’s economic and social development, and is responsible for South Africa’s declining ICT competiveness against its peers in the developing world, including those situated in Africa.

b.    Virtually all nations recognise the value of the internet in economic development, with direct contributions ranging from South Africa’s 1.9% to the United Kingdom’s 8.3%.

c.    The impact of low household internet penetration on social development is equally well-known and alarming: The majority of South African households are not able to access information for their families’ development in the critical fields of education, health, employment, and governance through e-government internet based portals.

2.    Targeting economically disempowered South Africans. Considering South Africa’s alarming world-record income inequalities, it is clear that far too many South Africans cannot afford acceptable quality internet connections at their places of residence. Requiring the means to access the internet being built into subsidized television set top boxes targeting such economically disempowered populations will do more than just enable families and individuals to access broadcast content in the era of digital terrestrial television: this represents the first and most cost-effective entry point to the internet economy.

3.    Affordability issues. Internet connectible set top boxes are capable of providing an entry level access to the internet for South Africa’s economically marginalized population by replacing the costly PC as an essential internet access device with simpler more cost-effective peripherals such as the TV as monitor, basic remote controls as input devices, and the ability to connect more sophisticated input and output devices such as keyboards and printers as demand for such devices, and internet connectivity, grows.

4.    Global ICT convergence. Rapid technological developments in the global ICT industry are driving the convergence of all forms of information delivery onto a common broadband internet-based platform. South Africa cannot remain immune to these global trends, but the rapid pace of development will most likely bypass the 90% of South African households without internet connectivity. The proposed STB internet access provides an elegant low-cost entry point for such convergence, for both consumers and entrepreneurs and innovators who will rise to the challenge of improving on the basic entry level connectivity, and in the process creating new jobs and livelihoods.

The South African Communications Forum, representing the majority of its members’ views and those of the broader ICT industry, strongly recommends the inclusion of internet access on the television set top boxes that will support South Africa’s migration to terrestrial digital television. The incremental costs of such inclusion will be minimal, but the outcomes can be made to have a dramatic impact on South Africa’s global ICT competitiveness, and the nation’s development through ICTs.

End of Press Statement.

Contact:

Loren Braithwaite-Kabosha, Executive Director, SACF

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011 315 0590

Note: Download the SACF presentation from the Download section below.