Released on = December 14, 2006, 12:40 am

Press Release Author = RNCOS

Industry = Industrial

Press Release Summary = Government of South Africa plans to form a broadband
infrastructure firm in order to reduce key costs of national long distance
connectivity by the year 2007.

Press Release Body = The South African government will create a broadband
infrastructure firm based on long distance, fiber optic network built up by Transnet
and Eskom, as per Alec Erwin - minister for Public Enterprises (SA). Formation of
the broadband infrastructure company, which is provisionally named as
“Broadband InfraCo”, is anticipated to rapidly reduce one of the key
expenses of broadband i.e. national long distance connectivity.

Emergence of analogous ICT (Information and Communications Technology) market in the
country would be fast tracked by the formation of this company. Although it would
take liberalization a few years to achieve this, InfraCo would achieve it in the
early 2007 itself”, according to the minister.

The move will likely result in a swift movement towards a globally analogous ICT
market, wherein operators will be competing for customers on the basis of price and
service while making use of considerably common infrastructure. Globally,
infrastructure of ICT was more and more treated as an article of trade with
differentiation being attained through content offerings and/or services”.

Three challenges namely high costs of and restricted access to broadband in South
Africa, lack of broadband’s worldwide competitiveness, and digital gap between
the 1st and 2nd economy had to be addressed for the country for participating in
international information communication technology sector.

A senior Research Analysts at RNCOS, who has recently researched a report on
“Middle East and Africa Broadband Sector Analysis (2007)”, said,
“While the uptake of Internet is growing robustly, market penetration is still
very low owing to the lack of dependable phone lines, launching broadband services
will likely lead to further growth of broadband services in Africa.”

This report provides extensive research and objective analysis of the Broadband
Market in the Middle East and Africa. The issues examined in this report include:

- Future outlook of the Broadband market in Middle East and Africa.
- Identify market, brand leaders, and understand the competitive environment in this
sector.
- What are the key challenges and strategies of the industry?
- Get an insight into the trends in market performance.
- What are the emerging technologies in the Broadband Sector in Middle East and Africa?
- Pinpoint sectors of growth and identify the driving factors in Broadband market in
Middle East and Africa.

About RNCOS:

RNCOS, incorporated in 2002, provides Market Research Reports for your business
needs and aims to put an end to your information pursuit. Our expertise in gathering
global business information for industry research, corporate training, growth
consulting, and business consulting, brings reputed companies and firms to us for
business enhancement solutions. We can be your one-stop-shop for Industry research
information and niche market analysis.

For more information visit: http://www.rncos.com/Report/IM07683.htm
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