In 2007. the internet in SA was expensive and painfully slow. Telkom, with its state-protected monopoly, wrapped its exploitive tentacles around everything from the “last mile” into businesses and homes to the meagre undersea cables connecting us with the global internet.

Leased lines for businesses cost a fortune, the only (realistic) way for home users to connect was through treacle-slow copper ADSL and connections were often “capped” as if bandwidth was a finite resource that had to be rationed like the parish gruel served to the orphans in Oliver Twist...