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The Need for Speed

August 25, 2022
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Stressed out African American female freelancer working from home using her laptop and encountering some problems concerning her business

In South Africa, we often celebrate our braai culture as a common denominator in our diverse society, but there is something else we have in common – frustration with slow internet speed. If you don’t travel much, you might not be used to anything quicker, but that doesn’t mean you don’t get annoyed with buffering and slow connections. Is internet speed in South Africa like our electricity supply? Are we just happy to at least have something?

Much of modern-day living is about convenience and immediate gratification. We struggle when we must wait. It is not always about being impatient, it might be about expecting better performance. Performance isn’t always as commendable as it sounds. High performance standards can easily compromise relationships and your own mental well-being. But the expectations are not going anywhere and when you google the biggest frustrations of our modern life, you’ll find slow Wi-Fi, computers that freeze and low phone batteries at the top of the list.

Recent figures show South Africa ranked at number 56 in the world for mobile speed and at 95 for fixed broadband speed. (Read more) South Africa’s internet speed in 2022 according to data published by Ookla (Read more), is 30.54 Mbps for mobile internet connection via cellular networks and 29.73 Mbps for fixed internet connection speed. Compare this to the fixed broadband speed in Jersey (the fastest in the world) at 274.3 Mbps, The Netherlands at 107.3 (number 9 on the world ranking) and the UK at 65.89 Mbps. (See a map with global internet speeds)

Why do we have this need for speed? More than getting your boss of your back a bit quicker and having less complaints from your kids, fast internet has become indispensable in most aspects of life, whether it is business, leisure, work, school or entertainment.

  • Remote working is a post-Covid reality and fast internet makes this not only possible but more convenient.
  • Media sharing is at the order of the day. Other than sending reports, presentations and images for business purposes, we share pictures of everyday life with family and friends without even thinking about it.
  • Fast internet enables you to download bigger files. Gone are the days of decoders and recorded programmes, entertainment lives online and that requires fast internet.
  • I have a colleague that claims she could double her productivity if she worked from New York (where 98.3% of people have access to 100 Mbps broadband), rather than the Cape Winelands. She might have a point! (Read more)
  • Who still has a physical filing system? Do you have printed reports in a file or a drawer? Do you have a recent physical photo album? The Cloud is where it’s at, but if you’re internet is slow, perhaps back to the printouts, we’ll go…
  • Video conferencing was forced upon us by Covid-19 and even those who complain about Zoom meetings are very happy to save a few hours a day if they can meet online rather than drive to an in-person meeting. Slow internet does, however, make you reach for your car keys, because pixelated images and distorted sound are never pleasant.
  • Better productivity is one thing, but without internet, we are not productive at all! Websites, online shopping, social media advertising are all essential to most businesses and when the internet is not reliable, secure and fast, the consumer looking for immediate satisfaction will not be satisfied.

Earlier this month, Google’s Equiano subsea internet cable landed in Melkbosstrand, completing its course from Portugal along the West Coast of Africa. According to Business Insider, this 144Tbps, 12 fibre pair Equiano cable promises faster and better-priced internet by then end of 2022. This cable promises 20 times more network capacity than the previous cable for our region. What makes the future seem even brighter is that the world’s longest subsea cable, the Meta-backed 2Africa, connecting Africa, Asia and Europe, should come online in 2024 with landings in the Western and Eastern Cape as well as KwaZulu-Natal.

Despite President Ramaphosa’s new energy plan, South Africans can’t be blamed if they’re not overly optimistic about power supply. But we do have reason to celebrate what is hopefully soon to be faster internet!

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