The ICT sector has one of South Africa’s biggest job markets and is also one of the biggest contributors to the economy.
This is according to the State of ICT report published by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). The report represents the development and performance of the telecommunications, broadcasting and postal services.
Across these three sectors, overall employment numbers rose from 18.8 per cent to 61.757 in 2018 from 51,993 in 2017. Employment increased by 20 per cent for the telecom sector, 21.9 per cent for the postal sector, and 0.3 per cent for the broadcasting sector.
3G covered 99.5 per cent of the national population at the end of 2018, showing no change from the previous year. LTE penetration, however, increased to 85.7 per cent from 76.7 per cent.
While the ICT sector keeps growing according to this report, particularly around the mobile services sector, ICASA’s vision of access to a wide range of affordable communication services has not quite been met. Even though access to mobile services keeps getting better, both fixed and mobile broadband access remains unsatisfactory because of the perceived high cost of communication services, in particular, data services.
By Daniëlle Kruger
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