THE AFRICAN
INTERNET & TELECOM SUMMIT
Banjul, The Gambia
5-9 June 2000
| OVERVIEW
OF THE INTERNET IN SWAZILAND Prepared by:Mzwandile Richard
Mabuza Background Swaziland is a small country located in Southern Africa with about 17,364 square kilometres of land, a population of about one million inhabitants. The telecommunications network has just over thirty one thousand (31314) working customer lines, with a waiting least of about eighteen thousand (18,0000). The teledensity is just above 3 per hundred inhabitants. The network is all digital and efforts are now being put on building self healing rings consisting of largely SDH radio and optic fibre transmission links. SS7 is being tested and once the tests are concluded we should be able to offer ISDN on a countrywide basis. Data communication is largely via
managed leased line network as well via VSAT's for those who can
afford them.
Since 1995, the Internet service has been left in the hands of two ISP's who have been servicing the public. The University of Swaziland has been an ISP but only supplying the campus. For one to become an ISP one only needed a trading licence which is issued by the Ministry of Commerce. Thereafter one leases bandwidth from the incumbent operator to link up with a network operator of one's choice. However, all three ISP's were linked to some operators in South Africa using leased lines of less than 64 kbps. In 1988, realising the limitations of the current access methods, the Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) jointly initiated a project that would link Swaziland to USA Internet Back Bone and to join the Global Information Highway. The project is funded by both organizations. The project MoU was signed in May 1998. The project is now at testing stage and should be launched officially during the month of June 2000.
It is estimated that there are some four thousand (4000) subscribers and users of the Internet in Swaziland.
The user base can be roughly
represented as follows:
There are currently three ISP's but the number is expected to increase with Government becoming an Intranet Service provider and the SPTC, which through the Internet Gateway project, can provide the Internet service particularly to the under served areas.
Currently the ISP's have a combined bandwidth of 512 kbps via terrestrial leased lines. The Internet Gateway project is to provide 512 kbps through INTELSAT and this should be available officially to any ISP who so desires from mid June 2000.
Currently there is no regulation for the ISP market. As for IP telephony, there is no specific regulation, but one may be tempted to think that some regulation may have to apply in the same spirit as for fixed and mobile telephony.
Several Internet cafes have been provided in the two main cities of Mbabane and Manzini. These cafes have been put up by the ISP's sometimes acting alone and in partnership with the Post Office. The Internet Gateway project specifically made provision for the SPTC to have capacity to provide access to remote areas should this be imposed by Government as a USO. Customers pay a monthly access fee of about US$15 to 20 over and above the cost of the telephone calls Customers who use the cafes are charged on a usage basis. What are the impediments against Internet Development in the Country: From a stake-holders' meeting held towards the end of 199, the following were identified as some of the main impediments:
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