By Kathy Gibson – In this age of digital transformation, it’s sometimes hard to remember that the world wasn’t always connected.
But it wasn’t that long ago that South Africans went online for the first time.
In January 1995, IT trade newspaper Computing SA ran a feature proclaiming “1995 to be the year of the Internet”, as the nascent technology was slowly making its way into the mainstream.
At that time, online activity had largely been via Bulletin Board Services (BBSs) or other point-to-point communications, and it was mostly a one-way affair – you could look, or you could post information, but communication was a bit more complex.
In South Africa, this state of affairs had been exacerbated by the then South African Posts and Telecommunications (SAPT) declaring in 1991 that no third party was allowed to carry messages, and attempting to prevent email outside of a company’s private network from being carried.
But the Internet was a force that wasn’t going to be stopped, as it has proved over and over again in its short history.
The Internet had its origins back in the 1960s, as a way of allowing US government researchers to share information. This led to the development of ARPANet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). This proved to be useful, but it was restricted to research and academic bodies that had ties to the Department of Defense, and so an alternative network was created, which became the Internet.
The birthday of the Internet is considered to be 1 January 1983, when the new communications protocol TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol/Internetwork Protocol), with roots in the Unix operating system, became standard.
The Internet was still largely the preserve of research and academic institutions, but this would soon change when the World Wide Web opened it up to many more opportunities.
In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee came up with the World Wide Web, which links hypertext documents into an information system that’s accessible from any node on the network.
The rise of the Internet from that point can only be described as meteoric: in 1993, it carried just 1% of the information flowing through two-way telecommunications networks, but this had risen to 51% by 2000, and more than 97% by 2007.
In South Africa, the first IP address was granted to Rhodes University in 1988. The first IP connection was made on 12 November 1991, when Mike Lawry connected to the home of Randy Bush in the US.
South African universities were connected to the Internet through Uninet in 1991, but commercial access really kicked off in June 1992 with the registration of the first .co.za sub-domain.
The next years saw the rise of technologies like BBSs and SAPT’s Beltel, allowing users to connect to information sources and even collaborate after a fashion.
By 1995, terms like the “information superhighway” were being used to describe the Internet, and services like email outside of the corporate network were taking off.
The market was driven largely by the rise of the Internet Service Providers led by start-ups such as PiX, Internet Solutions, Internet Africa, UUNet and others.
But, unless a company was able to invest in a direct Diginet line to their ISP, connectivity was still through the telephone system, via modem (modulator/demodulator), or via ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network).
For individuals, the modem proved slow, cumbersome and unreliable – and pricey – while telephone lines were limited in the South African environment.
ISDN, while a faster and more reliable service, still used the regular telephone line and sometimes proved more costly than expected as well.
It was the introduction of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) that gave the Internet a major boost, allowing companies and individuals to experience broadband connectivity over their existing copper telephone lines.
In 2021, ADSL has come and gone, having been superseded by mobile data, fixed mobile broadband and widespread fibre connections, putting inexpensive, fast and always-on Internet into the hands of users throughout the country.
For many years, South Africa’s only connection to the outside world was via Telkom’s SAT-3 and SAFE cables, linking to Europe and Asia respectively. This was greatly enhanced by the landing of the Seacom cable in 2009, followed by the Eastern African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) in 2010 and West Africa Cable System (WACS) in 2012.
Today, South Africa is connected by no fewer than nine undersea cables, giving it quick and redundant access to the world.
Internet regulation
The value of the Internet and the World Wide Web lies in the global and open nature of the technology.
Globally, Internet domains are administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a multistakeholder group and nonprofit organisation that coordinates the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet, ensuring the network’s stable and secure operation.
In South Africa, this function is carried out by the ZA Central Registry (ZACR), a non-profit organisation (NPO) currently managing various .ZA second level domains, such as co.za, net.za, org.za and web.za.
With over 1 250 000 domain name registrations, the majority of these domain names are under co.za. These names represent 95% of the total number of registrations in .ZA, and a large percentage of ccTLD registrations for African.
In 2014 ZACR added three new gTLDs to its administration, namely: .Joburg, .CapeTown and .Durban. It also won the right to administer .africa domain names on behalf of the whole continent.
The .za Domain Name Authority (.ZADNA) is a not-for-profit organisation that manages and regulates the .za namespace.
.ZADNA is accountable to the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services, and is mandated to administer, regulate and issues licenses in terms of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (2002).
ZADNA may make regulations regarding the requirements which registries and registrars must meet in order to be licensed, including objective standards relating to operational accuracy, stability, robustness and efficiency. It also regulates the circumstances and manner in which registrations may be assigned, registered, renewed, refused, or revoked by the registries.
Into the future
The Internet in South Africa has certainly come a long way in just 30 years, and today it stands at the centre of our personal and business lives.
With digital transformation the buzzword around the world, it is the foundation on which South Africa can build its fourth industrial revolution (4IR) aspirations.
Communication, collaboration, and smart lifestyles all rely on the advanced connectivity enabled by technologies like 5G, cloud computing and more.
Read the full feature, 30 Years of the Internet in SA, here.