The first use of
telecommunications in the
Republic of South Africa was a single line
telegraph connecting
Cape Town and
Simonstown. The first telegraph was launched on 2 December 1859, and the Cape of Good Hope Telegraph Company opened the line in April 1860. At about the time of the
Bell Telephone Company's development of the telephone industry post-1876, early
undersea telegraph links were introduced, first connecting
Durban and Europe, and later connecting the country to the rest of the world. In 1879, the first submarine cable system that connected South Africa with Europe started to work, through the East Coast cable of the South African Telegraph Company, a single channel cable. In 1889, the first West Coast submarine cable from Cape Town to Europe was installed. The 1584 nm cable provided by CS Scotia was linked with West African Telegraph Companies' cables.
Telcon carried out the links. Another cable to Cape Town was laid in 1899 during the
Second Boer War, this time from
Ascension Island, by the Eastern Telegraph Company (later
Cable & Wireless plc). In the mid-twentieth century undersea telephone cables were also commissioned. In 1968, the SAT-1 cable was laid. It connected from
Melkbosstrand, South Africa to
Sesimbra,
Portugal.
Telkom was incorporated on 30 September 1991 as a public limited liability company registered under the South African Companies Act, 61 of 1973, as amended. In 1993 GSM was demonstrated for the first time in Africa at Telkom '93 in Cape Town. In 1994 the first GSM networks in Africa were launched in South Africa. In 1994, South Africa launched a mobile operations, underwritten by Telkom in partnership with
Vodafone, with 36,000 active customer on the network. This subsidiary grew to be
Vodacom, which Telkom sold in late 2008 in preference for its own 3G network. The first public
videoconference between the continent of
Africa and
North America occurred on 24 June 1995 (2:00-3:00 p.m. PST). The Cybersafari Digital Be-In and Internet Love-Fest linked a technology fair at Fort Mason in San Francisco with a techno "
rave" and cyber-deli in Woodstock,
Cape Town. For one hour, members of the public communicated with each other via a simple Picturetel system using a 128 kb ISDN line. "Cognitive dissident" and communications activist David Robert Lewis initiated the video conference and peacecast on the San Francisco side, and Freddie Bell answered the call in Woodstock, Cape Town. Because of different ISDN standards, a video bridge via Boston was used to achieve the link, which also featured interactive dancing. Organisations which took credit were technology sponsors Picturetel and
Telkom, plus Peacecast organisers Unity 95, Parallel University, Vortex, Creativity Cafe and line producer "Cybersafari to Africa". In 2004, the Department of Communications redefined the Electronics Communications Act, which consolidated and redefined the landscape of telecommunications licensing in South Africa (both mobile and fixed). The Independent Communications Authority (ICASA) currently licenses more than 400 independent operators with the Electronic Communications Network License (with the ability to self-provision) as well as issuing Electronic Communications Service Licenses for service deployment over infrastructure in the retail domain. In late 2009, South Africa's mobile operators came under criticism by the government and public for high interconnect charges. The issue was discussed by the Parliamentary Committee on Telecommunications. In 2020, MTN, Vodacom and Rain launched 5G network in South Africa. == Television ==