The Challenges Facing South African Urban WISP's

Introduction

Currently, Wireless internet service operators, are generally but quietly organizing broadband internet across the South Africa and particularly in   urban areas that are overcrowded by large players.  WISPs are accounted to be the primary broadband internet admission delivery means to urban, less served and rural areas globally (Shaddi, Yahel, Bittman & Raghavan, 2015).  However, despite the increasing use of Wireless internet the operators are often subjected to challenges in maintaining as well as growing their operations. The  existing competition  has also been intensified  by  FTTH also  known as  Fiber to the Home which is  the  use  as well as the installation  of optical  fiber  that is based on  a central  area that  builds  to the person's  residence  or even business building  in  offering  undistracted   access  to  high speed  internet (Hawthorne, Mondliwa, Paremoer, & Robb, 2016).  South Africa’s urban have drastically adopted FTTH utilization recently based on the high connection speed that exists amid computer users as compared to WISP which is utilized in most locations. This paper will present an analysis of the challenges faced by WISP operators in maintaining and growing the business operations and approaches to managing the networks in urban South Africa.

Urban areas are said to be the easiest locations in connecting wireless internet based on the high density of subscribers thus making it easy to acquire profits.  However, urban WISP operators are faced with difficulties of sustaining their operations as well as growth due to intensified competition and the high ability of consumers to switch supply and prices (Hawthorne, Mondliwa, Paremoer, & Robb, 2016). Urban locations are in particular crowded by large providers with an increased consumer market   and high influence on the market. The corporations offer services that are characterized by high quality and affordability due to their strong establishment and ability to persuade their consumers.  Urban areas in South Africa are densely populated and the last decade speed, access and the applications of internet diversity in the areas have increased.  However, with the development competition has also intensified leaving the small WISP operators at the difficulty of managing operations and pursuing growth.  In addition, growth is particularly limited by the high growth of FTTH rollouts and Hero Tel in urban areas due to the increased benefits (Hawthorne, Mondliwa, Paremoer, & Robb, 2016).

Extending the utilization of WISP in urban areas is a modern limit that is being fueled by the high growth and advancements of technology.  There is therefore, the  need  to develop  operations that  best  suits  convenience, accessibility  and affordability  as the  primary  needs  of modern  urban  internet  users (Misra, Kumar, Agarwal, & Agarwal, 2016). WISPs highly address the needs of rural areas since this is the only mean that the users in the locations can access internet. Based  on a survey  that was conducted  in the  year 2014  particularly  in an urban  town in South Africa it was  established that WISP has maintained  its effectiveness  as it offers more internet  services.  However, with the  rise  of  brand band and fiber  internet  that is  provided by  large corporations  such as  Telkom and Hero Tel  usability  has been switched greatly (Yankelevich, Shapiro, & Dutton, 2017).

The growth of the wireless internet industry popularity in particular is driven by the high performance and falling expenditures of wireless equipments. The  popularity  has  facilitated the  growth of the  industry  since the  general accessibility  of unlicensed range has  grown  internationally (Haque & Abu-Ghazaleh, 2016). The rise of broadband and fiber to home internet has reduced the number of WISPs consumers. Consumers  are  currently demanding  the provision  of  internet  access that is characterized  to a speed  less than 500mbps which  is a  major challenge for the WSIPs operators  since  the provision requires more  cost yet  users in urban  areas are  not willing to  pay more  since they can easily substitute the services. The demand  is well addressed by  FTTH and broadband  internet  which challenges  the general capability of WSIPs  to  sustain and  mange their operations for  business development (Shapiro, Murphy, Yankelevich & Dutton, 2016).

WISPs  operators  in  urban areas especially the small  operators  that  are not  full established  are faced  with  the challenge of  financing and business growth.  In that,  the operators  requires  much  capital  to install  rooters  that  would supply  the  internet  to more  consumers and  due to the  denseness  of  urban areas more  bands and wireless equipments are  a necessity (Shaddi, Yahel, Bittman & Raghavan, 2015).  It is challenging to acquire the funds that are necessary in expanding the growth of networks and meeting the changing demands of consumers. The expense  of adding  internet speed  and  more  consumers to  the  particular  operators network  is  high  since  the installation  requires  the a survey  of the location due to the  blocking by businesses, a technical  expertise,  users  installation  resources  and the  general physical installation  of  hardware (Shaddi, Yahel, Bittman & Raghavan, 2015).

It may  seem like the  WISPs  operators  are permitting  the FTTH and broadband operators to take over  the  urban  market  but  this is contrarily.  The growth of the  WSIPs  interwork  and the  pressure  to  pursue  and obtain  new  consumers  is  strained  by  cost which  is particularly higher to work above the  current one (Seth & Paramita, 2016). Operating in both  urban as well as rural areas for WISPs operators  has been accounted  as  adequately  profitable to  sustain  its  current  market size  but  this  produce particularly in the  urban  locations  is inadequate  to  facilitate expansions and  entrance  into  fresh markets.

The  capability of WSIPs outweighs that  of broadband internet  in that  mobile  wireless  internet  cannot  be considered  as a general substitute for  permanent  internet  services. the broadband users are  more likely  to abandon the services  in the long-term  with the increase of  the need  for  more internet  with  high speed  and  less  prices (Etoundi, Onana, Olle & Eteme, 2016).  This makes it clear that FTTH that offers fast, readily available and less costly services is the major competitors of WSIPs. FTTH which  is  has  currently  increased  its  use  in the urban locations is considered  to be highly  preferred and  popular  based on speed  and accessibility. However,  it is also  limited  by accessibility points  in  urban  places  due  to  buildings  sizes  as well as  structures (Bertschek, Briglauer, Hüschelrath, Kauf, & Niebel, 2016).  The  high  adoption  of FTTH  has thus resulted in  a reduction  of  WSIPs  market  as  fiber  internet  is also among the leading  internet distributors for  businesses and homes (Van-der-Wee, Domingo, Verbrugge, & Oliver, 2016).

An  additional  urban WISPs  challenge  is the  lack of  formal  and  cooperative  relationships amid the  established  and the  small WSIPs  operators.  Established  operators have the tendency  to maintain  formal  and participative  relations with those  in the same  level  as  a strategy  of fostering growth (Choi, Wong, Chang, & Park, 2016).  This  therefore hiders  backhaul  and  infrastructural  sharing  among the  established  and the  growing operators.   Expansion  is in the case  facilitated only for the  large operators while the small  ones  are  pushed  out of some boundaries  due to the lack of   infrastructure  and understanding  of the  consumer’s preferences  and demands.  This leads to low purchases among the groups and the ability to management and pursue growth becomes limited (Phokeer, Densmore, Johnson, & Feamster, 2016).  Range usage is  an addition  challenge  that  the  operators are  forced to face  since most of the  operators  utilizes  unlicensed range  with  some of them utilizing  event  the licensed spectrum as  well. The lightly licensed bands are highly popular among the operators based on the quiet relativity of the band in comparison to those that are not licensed.  The  operators holds the  desire  of  operating  with  bands  without the  presence of spectrum  since the  unlicensed  varieties are characterized  by  overcrowding which makes  it  less  effective (Limbach, Kuebel, & Zarnekow, 2016).

Basically, WSIPs operators are required to operate with bands varieties due to the overcrowding of houses in urban locations. In addition  in  acquiring  high  frequency  in urban  locations  highly capacitated  spectrums are  needed (Long, Wu, & Irwin, 2014).  The scarcity  of spectrum  as an  issue in  urban locations  is  an obvious  one  based  on the  considerations that the  area is highly  served  by  numerous operators (Crawley, 2015). Access  site proves  to  be a primary  issue  since most of the  urban  buildings  are  tall which challenges  their ability  to  reach  consumers. The available internet  access  points  are  highly  crowded  which leads to the  loss  of signal strength  for  the  small  operators  utilizing low quality bands that are without licenses (Alur et al,  2016).

The existing  operating  limits in the wireless internet  industry makes it harder  for  development  of the  industry  to be  achieved  in the urban  areas.  This is  because  despite the  profitable nature  that is demonstrated by  the sector  both  in rural  and urban locations expansion is  highly constrained by  financing incapability, inefficient management  of networks, informal  relationships amid  operators as well as  business  procedures (McCracken et at, 2015). There is a high  rate  of  failure  for  the starting operators as well as decreased  performance  due to the  availability  of substitute and the high power  of consumers  to change  prices. This therefore makes that suggestion that there is a need of utilization of tools that facilitates the generation of high WSIP’s performance to add value. In addition, for the  starters  it is highly  advisable for them  to  focus  on  integration  as well as  mechanization of their systems so that  the WSIP’s odds  and to  enhance their general ability  in sustaining  the systems (Choi, Williams, & Ha, 2014).

In conclusion,  it is apparent  that  the  challenges  that  are  faced  by  South Africa’s urban WISPs  operators  are  grounded  on regulatory, competition and  financial  issues.  WISPs  operators do  not demonstrate the need  for network  monitoring equipments  in order  to  expand since  they are  adequately situated in the existing  market.  This is mainly  because the  operators   have  grown to their  natural  limit  in  urban  location’s  wireless internet  distribution. The rising competition from FTTH and broadband internet has led to the reduction of the WSIPs market share especially in urban locations. However,  despite the  challenges the WSIPs  industry  is  still  leading  in the  provision of internet access for both  rural as well as  urban  locations. Therefore, all that is needed by the industry is to adopt better strategies to overcome the limitations which will in turn support maximum growth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

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