The Internet user base in South Africa increased from 2.4 million in 2000, to 5 million in 2008,[8] and to 12.3 million in 2012. This represents 34% of the South African population in 2012.[9] This is the highest penetration for all African countries except for Morocco (55%) and Egypt (44%),[10] is well above the figure of 16% for Africa as a whole, and is comparable with the figure of 31% for developing countries worldwide.[11]
The total number of wireless broadband subscribers overtook that of fixed line broadband subscribers in South Africa during 2007. In 2012 there were 1.1 million fixed line broadband subscribers[12] and 12.7 million wireless broadband subscribers.[13]
South Africa's total international bandwidth reached the 10 Gbit/s mark during 2008, and its continued increase is being driven primarily by the uptake of broadband and lowering of tariffs. Three new submarine cable projects have brought more capacity to South Africa from 2009—the SEACOM cable entered service in June 2009, the EASSy cable in July 2010, and the WACS cable in May 2012. Six additional international cable systems have been proposed or are under construction. For details see the "Active and proposed cable systems" section below.