As South Africa entered the “spring” of its ambitious South Africa (SA) Connect broadband strategy, Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Dr Siyabonga Cwele assured stakeholders that South Africa’s information and communication technology (ICT) framework would be delivered by the end of March 2015.

The Telecommunication and Postal Services Department planned to accelerate the long-awaited implementation of SA Connect – the nation’s national broadband plan.

Speaking at the Southern Africa Telecommunication Network and Application Conference (Satnac), in Port Elizabeth, Cwele said the department would coordinate and support the roll-out of broadband infrastructure and services nationwide.

The country needed to grab the opportunity to be “the architect of its future” as the nation “stood on the threshold of a digital revolution” that would never be seen again.

Universal broadband access would be the critical enabler to leverage the digital revolution, while fighting the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment, he said.

“It is not a question of whether broadband should be deployed, but how to roll out broadband infrastructure,” added Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko, as Cwele noted that South Africa’s own National Development Plan also incorporated the entire ICT value chain.

Maseko stressed at Satnac that broadband enablement and universal access were as important as the fight against unemployment and poverty.

“The policy is well thought out and ambitious, which is what we need,” Maseko stated, adding that Telkom aimed to play a key role in providing broadband for all by 2020.

The Telkom CEO pointed out that 2% of South Africa’s area held 50% of the nation’s population and 70% of its national income. Many were “left behind” as the focus had narrowed to the populated urban areas, and there needed to be a collaborative solution to extending broadband to the remaining 98% of the area holding the balance of the population.

The much-revised and long-awaited SA Connect, also known as the National Broadband Policy, Strategy and Plan, aimed to fast-track South Africa’s broadband backbone and access infrastructure, particularly within rural and underserved areas, and meet the country’s vision of providing broadband for all by 2020.

The plan outlined four complementary interventions, namely digital readiness, digital development, digital future and digital opportunity, with an additional focus on supply- and demand-side interventions, which would close identified gaps between the current status of broadband and the vision of a “seamless information infrastructure”.

The plan envisaged that a universal average broadband speed of 5 Mb/s would be accessible by 50% of South Africa’s population by 2015. By 2020, the department envisaged 100% access at a minimum speed of 5 Mb/s, with about 50% of the population able to access speeds of up to 100 Mb/s.

By 2030, the entire population was expected to have access to a minimum speed of 10 Mb/s, while 80% was expected to access speeds of up to 100 Mb/s.

Since the adoption of SA Connect in 2013, an advisory council had been established to leverage partnerships and strengthen the ongoing ICT review policy.

The next few months would see the publication of a draft document incorporating all stakeholder inputs for the new National Integrated ICT Policy White Paper that had been redrafted over the past two years.

The White Paper would now officially be published by the end of the financial year in March 2015, a month’s shift from the February deadline given by Cwele in a Parliamentary reply in July.