Earlier today, Internet researcher and commentator, Arthur Goldstuck, presented the findings of World Wide Worx’s much anticipated “Internet Access in South Africa 2008″ study during the keynote of the Networkers at Cisco Live! conference which finished today at the Sandton Convention Centre.

Amongst the highlights were the fact that the Internet user base in South Africa has seen its highest rate of growth since 2001, increasing by 12.5% to 4,5-million in 2008.

I strongly suggest requesting a copy of the full report from World Wide Worx, but a summary of the trends and key findings are as follows:

Trend 1: There has been a 16% increase in Internet service providers
Trend 2: Hundreds of rogue and unlicensed networks are in existence
Trend 3: ADSL dominance is ending as a result of wireless broadband
Trend 4: Wireless broadband has entered the mainstream
Trend 5: Broadband culture has taken hold in SA
Trend 6: Dial-up at the end of its lifespan
Trend 7: ADSL has grown through SME installations
Trend 8: Cellphone Internet usage contributed to the Internet base
Trend 9: 12.5% jump in Internet users
Trend 10: Internet Adoption curve recovers
Trend 11: Strong growth predicted over next 5 years
Trend 12: Repeat adoption patterns
Trend 13: Experience curve flattens
Trend 14: But the experience curve will kick in again
Trend 15: Inflection point in 2013
Trend 16: More Bandwidth and increased caps!

Overall, the findings confirm what many, including myself, believe paint a bright future for South Africa’s maturing Internet population with the gap slowly closing between us and the developed world. Once SEACOM (the new fibre optic cable that will connect the East Coast of Africa to Southern Africa, Europe and Asia) goes into operation in mid-2009, the wholesale price of bandwidth is expected to come down drastically while connection speeds will far exceed anything experienced in the past.

Thanks to factors such as SEACOM and Fifa 2010, Goldstuck predicts that SA’s Internet Population will grow by 13.3% in 2009 & a whopping 17.6% in 2010!!!

It wasn’t all good news however, and Goldstuck did issue some caveats about the growing inequality gap that is emerging between South Africa’s haves and have-nots. For example, even under these new favourable conditions, it could take as long as 10 years before the previously disadvantaged are properly integrated due to the 5 year Internet experience curve. The fact remains that all the bandwidth in the world is pointless unless basic social and environmental factors are addressed such as literacy and access to reliable power.

Goldstuck also says that next year’s national elections are a key milestone and will largely determine whether the government is able to deliver on its social promises or not and whoever takes over as the next Minister of Communications will play an equally vital role in shaping the future.

Read Paul Jacobson’s post for more on this topic.

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UPDATE: An edited version of Goldstuck’s presentation was uploaded on YouTube (watch below):