At the Mobile World Congress, an international mobile industry networking exhibition and conference held in Barcelona from 24 to 27 February, Yunus Carrim, the South African Minister of Communications spoke on the progress made in the National Broadband Policy and Strategy.
The policy seeks to implement the goals of the National Development Plan (NDP) which recognises that broadband plays a crucial role in economic growth, development and job creation.
Carrim stated: “The Communications Regulatory Authority of Southern Africa (CRASA) needs to be strengthened and work more effectively. In South Africa, we adopted our National Broadband Policy and Strategy, “South Africa Connect’, on 4 December 2013. It gives expression to vision in our National Development Plan (NDP) of a seamless information infrastructure by 2030 that will underpin a dynamic and connected vibrant information society and a knowledge economy that is more inclusive, equitable and prosperous.’
Carrim continued, saying that South Africa had referenced from and consulted with other nations, drawing on the experience of international broadband plans from other countries in order to effectively launch its own. “We adopted an ecosystem approach to defining broadband by examining the entire broadband value chain (networks, services, applications and content). We have also provided for cooperation of the government and the private sector,’ said Carrim.
The Minister recognises that there will be challenges in implementing and executing the plan, and said that the transition may take some time. “We also realise that success in rolling out broadband depends on an appropriate market structure, clear institutional arrangements and high level state coordination across sectors. We have set broadband targets for the country which will encourage fibre deployment whilst encouraging mobile broadband rollout by releasing, over time, broadband spectrum.
“We have to ensure that broadband is accessible and affordable. And we must focus on increasing the awareness of our people of the value of the mobile phone and its capacity to provide internet and broadband in particular and the tremendous benefits of this,’ said Carrim.
He concluded: “It’s obviously not enough that we work more cooperatively and effectively together in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. We also need to gradually work closer with other regional structures of Communications Ministers and relevant structures of the continent as a whole.’
