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Telephone
Telephones - main lines in use:
- 4.844 million(2002)
- over 5 million (2001)
Telephones - mobile cellular:
- 41.3 million (South Africa has a popualtion of about 46 million) (2007) provided by four GSM networks, Vodacom [1], MTN South Africa [2], Cell C [3] and Virgin Mobile[4]. MTN and Vodacom also support the UMTS 3G standard.
Telephone system:
- the landline system provided by Telkom [5] (which formally had a government-granted monopoly on land-lines) is the best developed and most modern in Africa. Neotel [6] the Second National Operator has now entered the market and are proving voice and broadband fixed line access
domestic:
- consists of carrier-equipped open-wire lines, coaxial cables, microwave radio relay links, fiber-optic cable, radiotelephone communication stations, and wireless local loops; key centers are Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, and Pretoria.
international:
- 2 submarine cables; satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 2 Atlantic Ocean)
Radio
Radio broadcast stations:
- AM 14, FM 347 (plus 243 repeaters), shortwave 1 (1998)
Radios:
- 17 million (2001)
Television
Television broadcast stations:
- 556 (plus 144 network repeaters) (1997)(unknown source, only channels 4 available to public, SABC 1,2,3 and eTV)
Televisions:
- 6 million (2000)
Internet
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
- 150 (2001)
Internet hosts:
- 288,633 (2003)
Internet users:
- 5.1 million (2006)
Broadband Internet: Although expensive compared to more developed nations, broadband is easily obtainable in South Africa. Fixed line options such as ADSL, ISDN, Diginet and Leased Lines are available from the national operator Telkom. Wireless options are available from Sentech[7],iBurst[8], Vodacom [9], MTN, Cell C as well as Telkom. Satellite options are available from both Sentech and Telkom.
ADSL options start from 384 kbit/s R169 p/m on a 1GB cap ($24 - February 2007) while a more expensive 1024 kbit/s ADSL connection uncapped would cost R1950 ($278) or more depending on the provider used.
Wireless options are also available in major urban centres with speeds up to 7.6 Mbit/s with HSDPA.
Second National Operator (SNO): A SNO, Neotel, has been licensed in South Africa and is currently offering a wireless service in selected areas.
See also
References
External links
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 4 January 2009, at 10:46.
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