TV & Internet in Johannesburg

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TV

South Africa has 3 national channels (SABC1, 2 & 3) and one independent channel, ETV.  In addition, Johannesburg City Parks has been working closely with Township TV, a private social responsibility venture driving the concept, to bring sports events closer to poorer communities. Teaming up with partners DSTV, which is sponsoring the programming, and Ellies, which is sponsoring the satellite dishes and decoders, Township TV brings popular sporting events to Diepsloot and Eldorado Park over the weekends. During the week the focus shifts to children, with educational fare on offer. The LED screens are specifically made for daylight viewing and the parks have 24-hour security.

Website: http://www.townshiptv.co.za/index.html

Cable TV

South Africa does not yet have digital cable TV, as is common in America and other countries. There is, however, a private subscription service, called MNet, which has been broadcasting since the late 1980's, with a handful of channels.
M-Net http://beta.mnet.co.za/ OR http://www.tvae.co.za/

Satellite TV

A satellite company named DSTV was launched more recently and shows many of the same channels that can be found internationally (eg. MTV, National Geographic, Discovery, History, E! Entertainment.)
DSTV http://www.dstv.co.za
Multichoice
http://www.multichoice.co.za/multichoice/view/multichoice/

Internet

African Internet usage has trebled to over 12 million since 2000, but South Africa remains the continent's dominant Internet centre, with a quarter of Africa's users. And Johannesburg-based companies are central to the Internet industry. Nine of the 12 major Internet Service Providers listed by the Internet Service Providers Association are based in Johannesburg. The Johannesburg Internet Exchange (JINX) is the larger of two national hubs that connect the Internet Service Providers into a single network. Most Johannesburg hotels are online, and all but the smallest businesses have access, usually via a fixed line. A number of Internet cafes are available, particularly in areas where tourists congregate.

Although there are no definitive figures for the number of Internet users in South Africa, the generally accepted figure is around 3,1 million people. The majority of the country's Internet users are concentrated in the larger cities, Johannesburg in particular. High speed Internet access options on the local market include wireless, which is relatively new, and broadband, ADSL and ISDN, which are better established. Johannesburg International Airport offers wireless Internet access to anyone seated in the airport's retail and dining section. Connectivity is likely to grow in the next few years, because of increased competition from the second network operator and from Sentech, the national signal distributor for broadcast, which now also offers wireless broadband access.

The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) currently has 155 members. The largest service providers are listed in the chart below
http://www.ispa.org.za/about/memberlist.shtml

Member Name URL Telephone
AT&T SA http://www.attbusiness.net 0800.117.888 / +27.11.217.4000
CMC Networks http://www.cmcnetworks.net +27.11.517.8400
DataPro http://www.datapro.co.za 0800.111.304 / +27.11.809.1500
Gateway Communications http://www.gatewaycomms.com +27.11.797.3300
iBurst http://www.iburst.co.za +27.11.676.6000
Internet Solutions http://www.is.co.za +27.11.575.1000
MTN Network Solutions http://www.mtnns.net 086.011.0860
Mweb http://www.mweb.co.za +27.21.596.8300 / 0860.032.000
Neotel http://www.neotel.co.za +27.11.585.0000
Posix Systems http://www.posix.co.za +27.12.807.0590
Sentech http://www.sentech.co.za/ 0860 SENTECH / 0860.736.8324
T-Systems http://www.t-systems.co.za +27.11.254.7400
UniForum SA http://co.za +27.11.314.0077
Verizon Business http://www.verizonbusiness.com/ +27.21.658.8700 / +27.11.235.6500
Web Africa http://www.webafrica.co.za +27.21.464.9500 / 086.155.5222

Update 27/11/2008


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