There are no two ways about it: local hosting in SA is expensive. Although Hetzner, Web Africa, and Afrihost have all been making price cuts to bandwidth costs while increasing hosting allowances over the past half year or so, the current high prices and slow internet speeds make commerce more than usually challenging for high-bandwidth industries in South Africa.
One such an industry with high bandwidth requirements is the online gaming industry. Hosting online flash games such as those found at Games.co.za is an expensive business. “Expensive and slow at first,” says Rogier van Willigen, founder of Games.co.za. “But we can certainly see a positive trend in costs and speed. Bandwidth prices have dropped by a factor of three since we set up Games.co.za, and the 2010 World Cup this summer brings along many big investments in infrastructure which will contribute to descreasing bandwidth costs even further. The completion of the West African Cable System next year should really speed things up.”
Competitive market conditions have also contributed significantly, since no local hosting company can afford to stay behind in price cuts in today’s growing local hosting market. Hetzner, Web Africa, and Afrihost have all had to follow suit upon one another’s price reductions, and this trend will have to continue if local hosting is to attract international websites and become more viable to high bandwidth industries.
