IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The initiative was set up in Pretoria last month and is being led by the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's (CSIR's) Meraka Institute.

Project leader Chris Morris believes wireless technology is a solution to connect remote communities on the world's least wired continent. “Why should rural, poor and remote areas in Africa be denied access to the information society through lack of infrastructure, or because of exorbitantly high telecommunications costs?” he asks.

However, of later, there have been some salutary developments. 3G and WIMAX auctions will pave the way for driving up the broadband usage. The country’s WIMAX subscriber base is expected to reach 19 million by 2012. It represents enormous business opportunities. A recent study shows India’s WIMAX subscriber base hitting 14 million by 2013 and growing annually at nearly 130%. It means that in the next four years, about 20% of the global WIMAX users will be in India, making it a $13-billion market.

Seen by some as sitting on the wrong side of the world, Australia wants to plug deeper into the global economy by turbo-charging its broadband power. The nation is funding an ambitious plan to deliver high-speed Internet to its population of 22 million.

At 36 billion Australian dollars ($36.4 billion), it is the single largest infrastructure investment in the nation’s history.

But the national broadband network — or NBN, as it’s known — has divided opinion on political, economic and technological lines since it was first proposed in 2007.

Federal Minister for IT & Telecom welcomed the World Bank Country Director in his office, and matters of mutual interests and related to Information and Communication Technology (ICT), digitalization and connectivity were discussed during the meeting. Federal Secretary Ministry of IT Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui was also present in the meeting.

Talking to World Bank Country Director, Federal Minister for IT & Telecom Syed Amin Ul Haque said that under Digital Pakistan vision, provision of broadband services across the country is top priority of the Ministry of IT. He said The IT & IT enabled Services (ITeS) export remittances comprising of computer services and call center services surged to US $379.251 million at a growth rate of 43.55% during the first three months (July-September) of FY 2020-21, in comparison to US $264.187 million during the same period during FY 2019-20.

Das Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Arbeit (BMWA) hat heute ein neues Internetportal gestartet, das Bürger und Unternehmen über die technische Funktionsweise, den Nutzen und die Verfügbarkeit von Breitbandtechnologien informieren wird.

Unter der Adresse www.zukunft-breitband.de erhält der Besucher neben Erklärungen zu allen wichtigen Breitbandtechniken (DSL, Glasfaser, TV-Kabel, Powerline, WLAN/WiMAX, UMTS und Rundfunk-Techniken) auch Informationen zu rechtlichen Zusammenhängen und Sicherheitsaspekten. Zahlreiche praktische Anwendungsbeispiele von Digitalfoto über E-Business bis E-Government machen die Vorteile und Perspektiven von Breitbandtechnologien sichtbar.

Deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa has unveiled a broadband infrastructure project to promote Internet access and facilitate delivery of government services digitally to residents in the Eastern Cape.

The OR Tambo broadband project was launched in the Eastern Cape's Mhlontlo and King Sabata Dalindyebo municipalities on Friday.

Technology can transform the educational experience at an individual student, group or class level, but when the borders of affordability and access get expanded, the benefits obtained get magnified, as schools are empowered to deliver more entrepreneurs, inventors, and innovators.

It is in this spirit that Microsoft South Africa signed an agreement with Internet Service Provider Brightwave, to bring Wi-Fi and TV white spaces technology based on broadband access to more than 213 000 students at 609 primary and secondary schools, as well as several healthcare clinics in King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province.

The Department of e-Government has refuted fresh claims that management of phase two of the Gauteng Broadband Network (GBN) has been handed over to another agency.

According to Adriana Randall, Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng shadow MEC for finance and e-government, the department has turned to the Gauteng Infrastructure Funding Agency (GIFA) to implement phase two of the GBN project.

In a strongly worded statement referring to “recent events surrounding allegations of misconduct within the Department of Communications” and increasing frustration felt by business, the chamber accused the department of failing to meet targets and properly govern information and communication technology (ICT).

Affordable broadband is being promised by the Western Cape, Gauteng and the Department of Communications.

In January 2012 Communications Minister Dina Pule reaffirmed the Department of Communications’ (DoC’s) commitment to deliver 100% broadband penetration in South Africa by 2020.

The City of Tshwane’s “groundbreaking” broadband project aimed at promoting an e-government has been put on hold after it was withdrawn from a city council agenda.

The City said the council report approving the project was to be tabled in the council meeting of 25 February 2016.

Ericsson and the Communications Regulators Association of Southern Africa (CRASA) signed a memorandum of understanding this week to support the accelerated development of policies and regulations in the ICT sector of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

CRASA is a consultative body that was set up by SADC regulators to effectively develop harmonised policies and regulations for the ICT sector in the region.

In its document entitled “Broadband Policy for South Africa,” the Department of Communications (DoC) defined broadband as “an always available, multimedia connection with a download speed of at least 256kbps.”

Presenting the provincial budget for 2014-2015 for Gauteng, member of the executive committee (MEC) for finance Mandla Nkomfe said government has “finalised” the GBN and construction is scheduled to begin on April 1.

The Gauteng province will now be able to proceed with phase two of the broadband network infrastructure project.

This, after the State IT Agency (SITA) finalised the selection process of the service provider that will be responsible for implementation of the project.

SITA, which is tasked with the procurement process for the Gauteng Broadband Network (GBN) infrastructure project, confirmed to ITWeb the contract has been awarded to Altech.

The bulk of these resources will be appropriated towards realising the GPG's ICT Strategic Outcomes, in order to drive ICT transformation initiatives in the province.

To date significant milestone have been achieved towards the provision of reliable Information Communications Technology (ICT). In this regard, over 99.86% uptime availability of the GPG's Wide Area Networks (WAN) has been achieved.

Speaking at the Gauteng ICT summit today, finance MEC Mandla Nkomfe said broadband is the superhighway that could actualise this aspiration.

"That is why we have embarked upon an ambitious project to implement this solution, which will be underpinned by the utilisation of a variety of networks and devices."

BWired, The City of Johannesburg and Ericsson South Africa have collaborated to form the Johannesburg Broadband Network Project (JBNP), a 1.2 Terabyte capacity foundation and the backbone established to support the realisation of the ‘Smart City’ concept.