About this history

What the numbers mean

This history covers 2006–2026. Household access, individual use, signal coverage and cable capacity describe different things. They must not be treated as one measure. Survey categories may overlap; adding them can double-count households.

Each figure states its year, unit, place, population basis and source. Qualified figures such as “more than 30%” keep that qualification. A source link helps you inspect a claim; it does not prove the claim is correct.

The World Bank chart counts individuals. Its dated snapshot is included with the site; the local REST server can retrieve an updated series. A comparison uses the observation for the named year, never a newer value relabelled as that year.

Some milestones are dated only to a month or year. Their displayed dates retain that precision. Earlier infrastructure appears as context, rather than as an event within the 2006–2026 timeline.

Terms and abbreviations

Abbreviations used in the chapters, expanded once here. Organisation names follow the form each body uses itself.

ICASA

The regulator for communications, broadcasting and postal services. It licenses spectrum and publishes the sector reports cited throughout.

DCDT

The national department responsible for communications policy, including the SA Connect programme.

TENET

The body that operates the network serving universities and research institutions.

CSIR

The national research organisation that partnered with TENET to deploy SANReN.

SANReN

The high-capacity backbone built for universities and research institutions, separate from retail internet.

SAT-3

The west-coast submarine cable already in service before this history begins in 2006.

WACS

A west-coast submarine cable that entered service in 2012.

LTE

The mobile standard marketed as 4G, first offered commercially in South Africa in 2012.

4G and 5G

Successive generations of mobile network. Coverage figures describe the share of the population within reach of a signal, not the share using it.

FTTH

Fibre run all the way into a dwelling, rather than to a street cabinet or tower.

ICT

The sector covered by the regulator's annual State of the ICT Sector reports.

Gbps and Tbps

Units of network capacity. One Tbps is a thousand Gbps. Design capacity is what a cable is built to carry, not what is in use.

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Sources, credits and AI assistance

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