I have recently spent a lot of time away from the office. In many situations I have found it difficult to conduct business. Particularly because most of my business is done online and I feel the Internet access in South Africa is still not up to scratch. From travelling all over the country this is what I have found:
Northern Cape (near Augrabies falls): The only Internet access I could use was 3G and by 3G I mean using a 3G card to connect to the Internet. I was not even able to open a webpage let alone download and send emails. Richmond and Colesberg (between Cape Town and Johannesburg): No Internet for an Internet warrior to make use of. To pay for my stay in Richmond I had to pay online through the accommodations dialup modem (the last time I used dialup was in 2004 as a backup line to connect to my servers). Cape Town (Vredehoek above the city bowl): luckily I had an ADSL line (how I missed an ADSL line). The cell networks signal was not even good enough to hold a cellular phone call let alone making use of 3G.
I have written quite a few cell phone web applications for various clients; mostly for their sales reps to capture data when calling on their clients. The applications had a lot of potential to collect and manage their client's information. Sadly, even in our major business centres (Cape Town and Johannesburg), signal to connect to the Internet was so poor that sales reps struggled to make use of their applications.
The adoption of more and more smartphones has really made the online space exciting for me. I have made a lot of use of Google maps to locate destinations for business meetings. Often it has been the case where I just have not had good enough signal to use the service that I have had to resort to the good old paper map book.
I manage many servers and make a large use of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) which I can do from my cell phone (when I have access to decent cellular signal). In an emergency (when away from the office) I have been seen standing on tip toes trying to get a better signal to do my business.
I am a big fan of ADSL. It is a big effort to get a line installed but once you have it your online life is much more enjoyable. Having said that, we run 2 ADSL lines at our main office because the service itself can sometimes be unreliable. In some cases we have had no Internet for a week – thank goodness for the backup line and how were we meant to work for that week without it?
Watching Summit TV (which I do on a regular basis) a show about encouraging entrepreneurialism to grow jobs within the country was airing. Many governmental ministers of business were asked how this could be achieved. Only one interviewee had the intelligence to say that small businesses should be questioned were they find the pit falls to business lie for them and how it can be improved. Well here is your answer – a better and more stable communications and Internet network would allow us to perform our jobs and perform them better!
Northern Cape (near Augrabies falls): The only Internet access I could use was 3G and by 3G I mean using a 3G card to connect to the Internet. I was not even able to open a webpage let alone download and send emails. Richmond and Colesberg (between Cape Town and Johannesburg): No Internet for an Internet warrior to make use of. To pay for my stay in Richmond I had to pay online through the accommodations dialup modem (the last time I used dialup was in 2004 as a backup line to connect to my servers). Cape Town (Vredehoek above the city bowl): luckily I had an ADSL line (how I missed an ADSL line). The cell networks signal was not even good enough to hold a cellular phone call let alone making use of 3G.
I have written quite a few cell phone web applications for various clients; mostly for their sales reps to capture data when calling on their clients. The applications had a lot of potential to collect and manage their client's information. Sadly, even in our major business centres (Cape Town and Johannesburg), signal to connect to the Internet was so poor that sales reps struggled to make use of their applications.
The adoption of more and more smartphones has really made the online space exciting for me. I have made a lot of use of Google maps to locate destinations for business meetings. Often it has been the case where I just have not had good enough signal to use the service that I have had to resort to the good old paper map book.
I manage many servers and make a large use of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) which I can do from my cell phone (when I have access to decent cellular signal). In an emergency (when away from the office) I have been seen standing on tip toes trying to get a better signal to do my business.
I am a big fan of ADSL. It is a big effort to get a line installed but once you have it your online life is much more enjoyable. Having said that, we run 2 ADSL lines at our main office because the service itself can sometimes be unreliable. In some cases we have had no Internet for a week – thank goodness for the backup line and how were we meant to work for that week without it?
Watching Summit TV (which I do on a regular basis) a show about encouraging entrepreneurialism to grow jobs within the country was airing. Many governmental ministers of business were asked how this could be achieved. Only one interviewee had the intelligence to say that small businesses should be questioned were they find the pit falls to business lie for them and how it can be improved. Well here is your answer – a better and more stable communications and Internet network would allow us to perform our jobs and perform them better!
