And before. Most people were still on dialup until I think maybe 2010-2012. Wireless ISPs became really popular during all of this because they could offer better service, better uptime, better speeds, and QOS for things like VOIP. Bandwidth and data usage management became so important that ISPs were also selling managed proxy servers and on-premise email servers to businesses because it was cheaper than having to pay for additional 1GB data caps.

The two primary causes for this situation was that the sole wireline telecomms company in SA and there were only 2 undersea data cables connecting SA (and I think Africa) to the rest of the world. Telkom was semi-private and state-owned so they had no incentive to improve things and also had to pay through the nose for access to the two undersea cables.

However, things started to improve when more undersea cables got laid down (lowering bandwidth prices and improving international bandwidth) and the government started lowering entry barriers so that Telkom stopped being such a monopoly.