The term broadband refers to high-speed internet access. Broadband service provides a higher speed of data transmission. Broadband provides access to the highest quality internet services, such as videoconferencing for telehealth, that require large amounts of data transmission.
Broadband Services In South Africa
Broadband internet choices for SMMEs
Introduction Computer mouse connected to the world
As discussed on several occasions in this series of articles, there are considerable advantages to businesses of all sizes to trade online, and to take advantage of the multitude of services that are available online. Common to all of these is the need to have reliable and cost-effective Internet access, at a sufficient quality to all the desired interactions to take place seamlessly.
In Internet terms, quality is characterized by the speed of the service, the amount of data that can be accessed within a given period and other technical parameters such as jitter and latency. These last factors are mainly a consideration for ‘real time’ services such as voice and video calling, and where milliseconds make a difference to the experience e.g. online trading of stocks and shares.
Concepts related to broadband
There are several concepts that first need to be defined and understood before progressing to make the right choice of broadband option/s for your business. Note that these concepts are used widely and generalized definitions are provided below:
Fixed, nomadic and mobile: This refers to the location or locations where the service is available:
Fixed services are available only at a specific location constrained as a result of a physical wire or cable connection.
Nomadic services can be used within a known, set area. For example, a cordless phone can be used in most locations with a home but does not work in the neighbouring property.
Mobile services are generally available anywhere the service provider provides coverage. Here we can consider our cellphone calls which are available in most places of the country. Users ‘roam’ from one area to another.
Fixed and wireless: From above, for fixed services, the communications signals travel over a cable or wire, confining the service to a location. Wireless services transmit signals through the air. Note that there are hybrid services such as fixed-wireless that provide services to a fixed (set) location using wireless technology (no wires or cables between the locations). Moreover, many services involve a fixed connection to the network, and then distribution of the broadband service over wires (LAN = local area network) and/or wireless (WLAN = wireless LAN, using Wi-Fi).
Broadband speed: The speed of a broadband connection determines how much information (data) is transmitted over a given period. Broadband speeds are measured in the unit of Mbps (Megabits per second). A voice call takes only a fraction of 1Mbps (so kilobits per second, or kbps), while a video call will consume a few Mbps. Downloading and uploading of large files will benefit from a connection of many Mbps — the higher the speed, the quicker the download or upload. A typical home connection is of the order of 10 or 20Mbps, while a business connection may be from 50Mbps to 1000Mpbs or more depending on the nature of the business and various other factors as detailed below. For mobile services, the broadband speed is rarely publicized and varies depending on many technical factors.
Capacity: The volume or capacity of data is measured in units of bytes (B), with a million bytes being a Megabyte (MB), and a million-MB being a Gigabyte (GB). In turn, a million-Gigabytes is a Terabyte (TB). The size of a document or digital photo is usually measured in MB, the storage capacity of a cellphone in GB, and the hard-drive capacity of a computer in hundreds of GB or even TB.
In the same way, this is a measure of the amount of data provided by a service provider. The average mobile user typically uses several hundred MB per month of mobile data. When someone says that they are ‘buying data’ or have ‘run out of data’ it is the capacity of data that they are referring to.
Internet Service Provider (ISP): An ISP is a company that providers broadband Internet services, usually amongst other value-added services in their portfolio. In South Africa, there are around 500 licensed ISPs, ranging from the national giants of Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell, Rain, SEACOM and Liquid Telecom (all of who own their own networks) to mid-sized companies that deal mainly with subscribers such as Vox, MWeb, WebAfrica, Afrihost, Cool Ideas, Axxess, Supersonic et al. There are also smaller, localized and niche ISPs.
Service Level Agreement (SLA): Some ISPs are willing to offer service level agreements (SLA) where they stipulate the expected performance of their network and the service offered, and commit to penalties that are applicable should they not meet the agreed standard. The penalties may be in the form of credit or a discount. As a general rule, the higher the service level detailed in the SLA, the higher the price i.e. expect to pay a premium price for a premium service. Businesses can also consider mitigating their risk by subscribing to two services from two independent ISPs so as to minimize the risk of a ‘common mode failure’ i.e. a fault that affects both services simultaneously.
Types of broadband service
As detailed below there are many types of broadband services available in the market in South Africa:
1. ADSL: ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) is a broadband technology for home and business use that relies on a conventional telephone line running into the premises. Historically the telephone lines were made from copper, and later from aluminium. For this reason, sometimes reference is made to ‘copper lines’.
The physical element of an ADSL service is provided by Open serve (a division of Telkom) and the data service can be by Telkom, MWEB, WebAfrica, Axxess or other ISP (Internet Service Provider). In South Africa, typical ADSL speeds are 10Mbps, 20Mbps and 40Mbps. In general, the use of ADSL technology is declining as this product has reached ‘end of life’, with operators preferring to provide services over fibre or wireless, as detailed below.
2. Optical Fibre: Optical fibre — or usually just ‘fibre’ — is a communications medium that uses pulses of light travelling down a flexible strand of silicon glass. Fibre provides for very high speeds over long distances, with benefits such as no interference from electrical power cables. Services to homes delivered over fibre are in the range from 10Mpbs to 100 or even 200Mbps, with 20Mbps being the most popular service.
This is commonly called FTTH (Fibre to the Home). Business fibre services (FTTB) use similar technology, but may run at higher speeds and may come with an SLA. A data-intensive business and/or one with a high number of ‘knowledge workers’ would use a service measured in Gbps. Fibre services have become increasingly popular in the past 5 years or so, and hence use modern infrastructure leading to high reliability. Fibre optic cables can be underground (buried in trenches or ducts) or aerial (overhead, strung between poles).
What is the best Internet connection in South Africa?
The MyBroadband Q3 2021 South African ISP report revealed that RSAWEB is the best ISP in South Africa, followed by Cool Ideas and Afrihost.
Best and worst ISPs in South Africa.
| South African ISP Ranking | |
|---|---|
| ISP | Customer Satisfaction Rating |
| Axxess | 69% |
| Vox | 68% |
| Vodacom | 68% |
What Internet services are available in South Africa?
The Internet in South Africa, one of the most technologically resourced countries on the African continent, is expanding.
LTE Coverage by carrier 2020.
| Carrier | Coverage |
|---|---|
| MTN | 89.5% |
| Cell C | 81% |
| Vodacom | 83.6% |
| Telkom | 88.6% |
Which service provider is best in South Africa?
The results show that MTN was ranked first with a network quality score of 9.79, followed by Vodacom on 5.72, Telkom on 5.19, Cell C on 4.16, and Rain on 3.61. The research shows that South Africa had an average mobile download speed of 37.49Mbps and an average upload speed of 13.59Mbps