Faster Internet has landed, but will it also mean cheaper prices?

**Geek** · 10th February 2011, 11:22 AM

Good news: Namibia has been physically connected to the West Africa Cable System (WACS), which is a fibre-optic submarine communications cable that links South Africa with the United Kingdom. It runs along the west coast of Africa and the consortium running it consists of South Africa, Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Cape Verde and the Canary Islands.

The cable represents a huge step forward in terms of bandwidth. Apparently it will provide a direct connection to the global submarine cable network, and can carry 5.12 terragigs of communication once it becomes operation in the latter part of 2012.

But will this mean really fast, cheap Internet access for Namibians of all walks of life? I do hope so. Time will tell, but I am worried because the market is not very big and so Internet Service Providers try to profit from the relatively small subscrption base that they have, especially with new services. Prices may then go down after time, but initially a premium is charged. The reality is that many Namibians don't have PC's yet, BUT the advent of smartphones will change Internet access patterns.

So, good news indeed but let's hope that the coutnry does not miss the opportunity to transalte this into FASt, AFFORDABLE, RELIABLE, OPEN Internet access!!

**juikk** · 10th February 2011, 11:40 AM

Wow, great stuff. Indeed the smartphone users must be making up most head count of access to the net. Mobile service operators now also realize that not voice, not sms, but data is leading when it comes to services most sought after.

This in turn has poised the mobile service operators to have data Packages that include the data modems as well as laptop deals. Now the latter is actually better. However, knowing the Namibian market and it's exploitative trends, prices are likely to increase instead of dropping, believe it or not, even with this newbie, I do not think eventually prices will go down....just saying

**SnakeByte** · 10th February 2011, 01:47 PM

Keep dreaming. We live on a continent where the man in power, exploits all who are under him. Only if we as a continent, break away from that mentallity, will we get things cheaper. Third world countries, their presidents will always screw over the citizens. Low salaries, while cost of living is extremely high.

**zav** · 3rd December 2011, 10:08 PM

Cheaper prices or not, This brings Namibia a 10 years forwards with regards to connecting to the rest of the world.

The last few years in Nam, I remembered what my connection speed from my house was like back in 1999 in San Francisco.

What probably will happen is that the investment will have to be "monetized" and the ISPs will offer higher speed packages (in yearly contracts) for businesses at high costs and high data rates.

Some home customers will be be willing to pay for higher speeds and probably the next year, you will see more affordable, mainstream acceptable data plans.

The early adopters always get to pay a higher price for the new service/package so that the companies can start making back the money they have laid out.

Cheers from the home of Obama, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

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