28% of South Africans do not have access to the web, according to report

According to DataPortal’s Digital 2023: South Africa report, greater than 1 / 4 of the nation’s inhabitants nonetheless does not have access to the web.

At the begin of 2023, South Africa had 43.48 million web customers, an web penetration charge of 72%. Social media customers stood at 25.80 million individuals, roughly 42.9% of the whole inhabitants which stood at 60 million.

The quantity of web customers in the nation elevated by 357,000 (0.8% %) in contrast to the similar interval in 2022.

With regards to pace, the median cellular web connection pace by way of mobile networks was 36.70 Mbps. For fastened connections, the median pace was 40.12 Mbps.

Compared to 2022, the information reveals that the median cellular web connection pace in the nation elevated by 6.18 Mbps (20%), whereas the fastened web connection speeds elevated by 10.39 Mbps (35%).

Elsewhere in southern Africa

In Namibia, web penetration stood at 53%, translating to 1.37 million web customers. This is a rise of 1.4% from 2022. However, web speeds noticed a decline, with cellular connection speeds reducing by 8.5% to 18.30 Mbps and glued connection speeds dropping by 9.3% to 8.28 Mbps.

Zambia’s web penetration stood at 21%, a complete of 4.3 million web customers. Internet customers in the nation elevated by 115,000, a 3% enhance between 2022 and 2023. 

Internet speeds in the nation elevated fairly considerably, with cellular web connection speeds in Zambia rising by 25% and glued web connection speeds rising by 86%. 

As of January 2023, Zimbabwe had 5.74 million web customers, an web penetration charge of 35%. This represents a rise of 117,000 customers (2%). 

Internet speeds, on the different hand, mirrored blended fortunes. Mobile web connection pace in the nation decreased by 1.69 Mbps (13%) whereas fastened web connection speeds elevated by 2.14 Mbps (34%).

Although the figures confirmed an enchancment in penetration charges in most of the nations in the area, there stays a lot work to be achieved to carry the majority of the populations into the digital financial system.

With a lot concern round the difficulty of closing the digital divide hole fostered by inequality in access to the web nonetheless round, it stays very important for digital inclusion insurance policies to be applied to speed up web penetration in the area.