South Africa's Infrastructure Lesson

[Commentary] Beginning in June 2010, South Africa will host the World Cup, and the country's preparation and infrastructure transformation tell a remarkable story. Five new stadiums were built and five others are undergoing major renovations. This started with a $56 billion allocation in 2007 for infrastructure improvements for roads, airports, railway, city cleanup, hotels, telecommunications and much more. What does any of this have to do with technology? Quite a bit. Similar to the United States, expanding high-speed Internet access to rural and underserved areas is a major initiative in South Africa. New fiber and wireless capacity is being deployed across the country. Communications support to the World Cup stadiums will include a network backbone to support at least 40 Gbps to provide voice, data and high-definition TV. New high-capacity bandwidth connecting Africa to the world also is being added via undersea projects, such as SEACOM, which will provide African retail carriers with equal and open access to inexpensive bandwidth.