South Africa - Fixed Line Market and Infrastructure - Overview & Statistics

Synopsis

South Africa’s second national operator (SNO) Neotel is gaining traction in the market in competition to Telkom SA, using wireless technologies such as CDMA and WiMAX to provide alternatives to the incumbent’s copper access network. In addition, the government has created Broadband InfraCo, a national infrastructure company to provide cheap backbone network capacity to service providers, and the major mobile network operators, Vodacom and MTN, are moving into the fixed-line sector under a new converged, service-neutral licensing regime. Despite the significantly increased competition between different service providers, many municipalities in South Africa, including the country’s largest cities, are implementing their own fibre and wireless broadband networks.

The arrival of Seacom as the second international submarine fibre optic cable in South Africa in 2009 has brought down the cost of international bandwidth dramatically. Previously, Telkom had been monopolising access to the only major cable serving the country, SAT-3/WASC/SAFE. Several other cables are scheduled to go live in 2010 and 2011.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
  
• 2. Market overview
  
• 3. Fixed network operators in South Africa
  
  • 3.1 Telkom SA Ltd
    
    • 3.1.1 Shareholder structure
      
    • 3.1.2 Business segments and services
      
    • 3.1.3 Financial data
      
    • 3.1.4 Telephone tariffs
      
    • 3.1.5 Data services and leased lines
      
    • 3.1.6 Global network services
      
    • 3.1.7 ISDN
      
    • 3.1.8 PBX
      
    • 3.1.9 VSAT
      
    • 3.1.10 International expansion
      
    • 3.1.11 Structural separation
      
  • 3.2 Neotel
    
    • 3.2.1 Licence conditions
      
    • 3.2.2 Shareholder structure and funding
      
    • 3.2.3 Services and market potential
      
  • 3.3 InfraCo
    
  • 3.4 Amobia
    
• 4. National private networks
  
  • 4.1 Overview
    
  • 4.2 Transtel
    
  • 4.3 Eskom
    
  • 4.4 Other electricity utilities
    
  • 4.5 State IT Agency (SITA)
    
• 5. Sentech
  
• 6. Mobile operators establishing fixed networks
  
• 7. Telecommunications infrastructure
  
  • 7.1 Telkom’s national telecom network
    
    • 7.1.1 Fixed-line teledensity
      
    • 7.1.2 Wireless Local Loop (WLL)
      
  • 7.2 Neotel’s network infrastructure
    
  • 7.3 Municipal networks
    
    • 7.3.1 Knysna – Africa’s first municipal network
      
    • 7.3.2 City of Tshwane
      
    • 7.3.3 City of Johannesburg
      
    • 7.3.4 Ekurhuleni (East Rand)
      
    • 7.3.5 City of Cape Town
      
    • 7.3.6 eThekwini (Durban)
      
    • 7.3.7 Gauteng Link
      
  • 7.4 Dark Fibre Africa
    
  • 7.5 Internet Solutions (Dimension Data)
    
• 8. International infrastructure
  
  • 8.1 Submarine fibre
    
    • 8.1.1 SAT-3/WASC/SAFE
      
    • 8.1.2 Seacom
      
    • 8.1.3 EASSy, NBIN
      
    • 8.1.4 West African Festoon System (WAFS)
      
    • 8.1.5 West Africa Cable System (WACS)
      
  • 8.2 South African Power Pool
    
  • 8.3 Satellite
    
• 9. Related reports
  

• Table 1 – Telkom SA shareholders – March 2009
• Table 2 – Telkom SA’s fixed line data revenue and annual change – 2002 - 2009
• Table 3 – Telkom SA ISDN channels – 2000 - 2009
• Table 4 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 1999 - 2010