The City of Tshwane has completed the first phase of its free Wi-Fi roll-out in selected public areas around Pretoria.
The roll-out is part of the city’s plan to use the Internet in education and economic upliftment, according to a statement. The network is being deployed in partnership with Project Isizwe, a nonprofit founded by former Mxit CEO Alan Knott-Craig.
Locations that form part of phase one include the Tshwane University of Technology’s Soshanguve campus, the University of Pretoria’s Hatfield campus, Tshwane North College, Mamelodi Community Centre and Church Square in the Pretoria city centre.
“The Wi-Fi roll-out will benefit communities by granting free access to the Web, allowing users to participate in the mainstream economy,” says Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa.
Roll-out sites were chosen due to the high concentration of students, with emphasis on convergence. The Free Internet Zones allow users to access the Internet needing a login or password. Breakout to the Internet is provided by Neotel.
A fair-use policy limits users to a maximum of 250MB per device per day and forbids access to certain websites, such as those that contain pornography. Average access speeds are 1Mbit/s download at 256kbit/s upload. Users will be allowed to access on-network content that won’t go towards their data cap, such as a jobs portal and educational tools.
The Wi-Fi base stations will include hard drives to store cached versions of Wikipedia and education resources. “This reduces break-out costs because we have to access data centres less frequently,” says Knott-Craig.
Phase two of the project has been given the green light by the city and will include an additional 213 Free Internet Zones around Soshanguve, Mamelodi and Atteridgeville by the end of 2014. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
