Broadband access in South Africa has doubled over the past two years, according to a report from World Wide Worx (WWW), thanks to reduced data costs and increased network coverage.

The information contained in the Internet Access in South Africa 2012 study shows that broadband subscriptions have increase by 128% since 2010, when subscriptions were sitting at 3.6 million, to a projected 8.2 million by the end of this year. Broadband users in South Africa are actually lower than the number of subscriptions as some users swap between mobile networks to take advantage of promotional prices but this number has also gone up, by 140%, from 2.8 million to 6.7 million users over the same period.

Data from WWW claims that mobile broadband subscribers outnumber fixed-line subscribers by a ration of 8 to 1, with Telkom’s ADSL offering accounting for just 10.6% of the market. South African broadband penetration is now at around 11% of the population, when accounting for multiple accounts for some users.

Managing director of World Wide Worx Arthur Goldstuck said “This may seem small, but it is still light years ahead of where we were five years ago. It suggests that, five years from now, mobile broadband and smartphones will be the conventional means of access, rather than fixed line, which will increasingly be confined to small business.”

Source: World Wide Worx