Information > South Africa > Access

 South Africa: Building rural legal capacity through ICTs
03/03/2009 -- APC members have been preaching the importance of bundling capacity building with technology projects for a long time. Last year, Ungana-Afrika demonstrated the value of this approach in their work in rural South Africa with under-resourced paralegal advice offices just getting connected to the internet for the first time. |

 How much impact do ICTs have?
12/01/2009 -- Almost everyone agrees that ICTs can make a substantial difference to the poor. However, the evidence base is still weak. A new study – carried out by key donor and NGO actors in the sector and summarised in this briefing – looks at the reasons why the evidence base is not as strong as in other development sectors and makes recommendations for firming things up. |

 Global wireless boom
30/10/2008 -- The scope of wireless broadband connectivity is expanding globally, with several technologies vying for position in the market, and providing consumers and businesses with a greater number of choices. |

 Do mobiles take care of rural access?
30/10/2008 -- Following the initial rush of ICT for development projects in rural Africa, many did not yield the anticipated outcomes, and interest has been dying down. Now has mobile telephony won the race? While mobile phones certainly have had a great impact in rural areas, a new study, by Ian Howard and commissioned by APC, argues that the need for telecentres and affordable internet connections still exists. |

 Will Africa ever own her share of space?
20/10/2008 -- The stage is already set because not a single equatorial country in Africa has a satellite to its name, logically locking them out of the global outer space ownership debate, writes Othieno Joseph. |

 REPORT: Trends in NGO mobile use
19/10/2008 -- This report on mobile technology examines emerging trends in 'mobile activism' by looking at 11 case studies of groups active in the areas of public health, humanitarian assistance and environmental conservation. Countries considered include Uganda, Kenya and South Africa. |

 South Africa should follow in Africa's footsteps
19/10/2008 -- Technologically-neutral legislation is liberating Africa, experts argue. And South Africa needs to make sure it doesn't lag behind... |

 Equitable access: getting even
29/09/2008 -- Equitable access is about addressing social and economic imbalances when developing policy and rolling out ICTs, so that people from diverse backgrounds have more or less similar opportunities when it comes to accessing and using technology. APC has commissioned a series of papers and commentaries on equitable access. These include discussions on the themes of business models, policy and regulation, tools and technologies and people, networks and capabilities. |

 ACCESS: Race for bandwidth hots up
24/09/2008 -- Four international fibre projects are racing to complete ahead of each other on the west coast of Africa to give some much needed additional capacity and price competition to the SAT-3 fibre-optic cable. The drop in bandwidth prices could be spectacular. |

 Satellite still king in Africa
09/09/2008 -- Africa still relies heavily on expensive satellite connections to gain access to the internet, according to a report just released by the South Africa-based telecommunications analysts BMI-TechKnowledge. It says over 80% of African internet use is routed through satellite connections. |

 South Africa: Tip of the postbag...
24/07/2008 -- Was the news of Amazon.com's boycott of the South African Post Office's services just the tip of the iceberg, or were its claims of pilferage blown out of proportion? |

 South Africa: Local telecom costs slammed again
24/07/2008 -- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently released its African Economic Outlook report, and it is not particularly complimentary towards the South African telecoms market or Telkom. |