The Department of Communications (DoC) on Tuesday said it would table its revised National Broadband Policy for South Africa with Cabinet during June.
Delivering her Budget Vote speech, in Cape Town, Communications Minister Dina Pule said the DoC was finalising the Broadband Policy and Strategy in an effort to fast-track South Africa’s broadband backbone and access infrastructure, particularly within rural and underserved areas.
The proposed policy would incorporate all the provincial and municipal broadband initiatives as it moved to achieve some of the aims of the National Development Plan.
It was also aligned with the country’s vision of opening access to broadband for all by 2020 and complemented the Strategic Integrated Project (SIP) 15, which Pule commented had progressed well since its launch in December.
SIP 15 dealt with expanding access to information and communications services with a special focus on broadband and digital terrestrial television.
The Minister was also in the process of finalising a “project action plan” that would outline targets to ensure connectivity at, besides others, schools, health centres, government offices, libraries and police stations.
Pule also emphasised that the finalisation of the broadband policy and strategy would enable the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa to licence the much sought-after 2.6 GHz and 800 MHz band spectrum, which would, in turn, increase network capacity, improve coverage, promote competition and facilitate black economic-empowerment.
The period for public comment on the proposed broadband policy closed early in May.