World Wide Worx released its Internet Access in South Africa 2010 study on 17 March 2010. The presentation from the press conference has been distilled into a Tweenote Presentation: 10 tweets, each within the 140-character limit of Twitter, that capture the essence of the findings. By Arthur Goldstuck (art2gee on Twitter)

What follows is a tweenote presentation titled “Internet Access in SA 2010 – Tweeted”. For background: http://www.worldwideworx.com

#tweenote 1. By the end of 2011, African undersea cable capacity will increase 150-fold over the 2008 maximum

#tweenote 2. Blanket grant of licenses in SA, along with undersea cables, spark 18% growth in number of access providers

#tweenote 3. ADSL lines grew by 21% last year – versus 88% growth in mobile broadband accounts. The competition factor!

#tweenote 4. Of 1.5m wireless broadband subscriptions, only 930 00 use it as a primary form of broadband. ADSL is better

#tweenote 5. That means wireless broadband is 50% bigger than ADSL as primary form of broadband, from being level in 2008

#tweenote 6. Dial-up is down to 500 000 users. 200 000 migrated to broadband last year, the rest will follow.

#tweenote 7. ADSL in SMEs the big story: aside from the subscribers, they connected an additional 756 000 people in 2009.

#tweenote 8. Cellphone as primary form of access: 450 000 (3m use it in addition to other forms). Corporates connect 2m.

#tweenote 9. Total SA Internet user base end 2009: 5.3m. To grow to 9.9m by 2014. Academic and cellphone the big drivers.

#tweenote 10. The Experience Curve (our model) shows that usage of online services will explode from 2012. Prepare now.

That was a #tweenote presentation; a full research presentation in 10 tweets, from World Wide Worx. Thanks for following.

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The second of nine new undersea telecommunications cables to connect Sub-Saharan Africa to the rest of the world by 2011 will make landfall in South Africa tomorrow: 13 February 2010

Telkom announced today that the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) would land at Mtunzini – the landing site of SEACOM, the first new cable – on the northern KwaZulu-Natal coastline.

However, it also admitted that the cable would only be ready for operations in August 2010 – too late to make a contribution to World Cup 2010 broadcast needs. Once it is in operation, however, its capacity will exceed that of the SEACOM cable.



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For alerts of new items on The Big Change, follow Arthur Goldstuck on Twitter, on @art2gee

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The third in a series of presentations delivered by Arthur Goldstuck via Twitter. The presentations consists of 10 Twitter messages, or 10 tweets, each of 140 characters or less. The format will be refined over time, but this is how the “tweenote” presentation entitled “Ready to serve: Lessons from the muck” appeared on Twitter on 11 August 2009:

1. Who is the most important person you have ever met? Richard Branson? Mick Jagger?  Nelson Mandela? Sepp Blatter?

2. The most important person I’ve ever met is Aaron Mabase. I only had the privilege of meeting him once.

3. He boomed out: “Welcome to my office!” The walls and floors of his office gleamed white. He watched to see if I approved.



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The second in a series of presentations delivered by Arthur Goldstuck via Twitter. The presentations consists of 10 Twitter messages, or 10 tweets, each of 140 characters or less. The format will be refined over time, but this is how the “tweenote” presentation entitled “SA’s Mobile Subscribers: Mind the Gap” appeared on Twitter on 13 July 2009:

1. SA’s cellular industry was launched in 1994 with 2 networks and a projected subscriber ceiling of only 2-million.

2. In 96, Vodacom launched a pre-paid service, adopting a system first used by Portugal’s TMN in Sep 95. MTN followed fast.

3. At launch the industry expected to reach the 1-million mark in 6-10 years. It reached the million mark in 3 years.

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