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ISPA shows strong growth
2007-04-25
According to ISPA South Africa's Internet community continues to organise in pursuit of its objective of liberalising the local telecoms market.
Figures supplied by the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) reveal that membership grew 23% between February 2006 and February 2007. Membership of the 11-year old Internet industry body currently stands at 129 large, medium and small Internet service and access providers.
ISPA states that it has historically served as an active industry body, facilitating exchange between the different independent Internet service providers, the Department of Communications, ICASA, operators and other service providers in South Africa.
The latest figures provided by them show a marked increase in membership compared with 12% growth over the previous 12 months.
Ant Brooks, ISPA's General Manager attributed the increase in membership to ISPA's achievement of many of its stated goals. He noted that Government has taken tangible steps towards deregulating the telecoms industry and pointed out that Voice over IP (VoIP) is now legal.
"The number of ISPA members increases almost on a monthly basis. Attracting ISPs from wide-ranging services and target markets, the rise in membership growth figures may be attributed to the fact that entities are taking various industry issues such as privacy, consumer protection, spam and protection of minors more seriously than before," said Brooks.
The five categories of ISPA membership are Large, Medium, Small, Affiliate and Honorary. While applicants are free to determine their own membership category, ISPA does provide guidelines on its website.
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