Session 3

This presentation investigates the proximity to a low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) threshold that can still maintain a tolerable Bit Error Rate (BER) in 100G, 400G and 800G network links.

In 2025, the co.za zone experienced a significant service disruption, followed some months later by a similar failure affecting gov.za. In the absence of a detailed official Root Cause Analysis, limited concrete information has been made available to the operational community regarding these outages.

This talk describes work on an sFlow plugin for VPP (Vector Packet Processing), a popular userspace dataplane, enabling statistical packet sampling at very high rates using the sFlow protocol. In addition to standard packet sampling, dropped packets can also be observed to provide deeper insights into dataplane performance.

An update from the Wireless Access Providers' Association of South Africa (WAPA), covering the current state of the fixed wireless access market, regulatory developments affecting wireless ISPs, and the association's priorities for the year ahead. The session also addresses spectrum policy, infrastructure sharing, and the role of wireless access in extending broadband into underserved communities.

As South African enterprises push beyond traditional 1G and 10G connectivity toward native 100G and 400G services to support cloud adoption, AI platforms and data-intensive applications, service providers face growing pressure to scale routing capacity efficiently and extract greater value from fibre already in the ground.

A look at the ICANN process for new gTLDs and what impact it might have on the South African domain name ecosystem.

Growth and sustainability of the .ZA Domain namespace will focus on trend analysis.

The Pannel discussion will address the following question: 
Would direct second-level registrations make sense for .ZA?
How does the use of social media affect the need for domain names?
Interaction between ZADNA and the industry
How do industry parties feel about processing PID?

This speech reflects DGMT’s journey in advancing zero-rating as a tool to expand access to critical services, particularly for underserved communities. It highlights key learnings that access alone is insufficient without meaningful use and positions the current moment as a shift towards a more holistic approach to digital inclusion. Looking ahead, it introduces the Connectivity Coalition as a collaborative platform to drive systems-level change, emphasizing the importance of partnerships across civil society, government, and the private sector.