The City of Cape Town has taken the first steps to making Wi-Fi Internet access readily available to passengers on MyCiTi buses, it said in a statement on Thursday.
“The city has issued a tender for a service provider to install and operate a Wi-Fi Internet access service on all MyCiTi buses,” said Pierrinne Leukes, spokesman for the mayor, Patricia de Lille.
“Our vision is that passengers will be able to connect their own devices to the Internet using the Wi-Fi provided on MyCiTi buses. We want the service to be available on every operating MyCiTi bus at all times whilst in service. Basic use of the service will be free.
“This means that each passenger will have use of a limited amount of data for a limited amount of time each day at no charge. The minimum no charge data allowance per day per passenger will not be less than 50MB.”
Leukes said they anticipate the tender process will be completed in the latter part of the year.
“Thereafter, we hope the successful service provider will operate the Wi-Fi access service on a pilot basis for six months, after which Wi-Fi will progressively become available on all MyCiTi routes and buses over the following six months.”
The motivation for the project is the proven benefits for social and economic upliftment for communities, and as an incentive for residents to start using the MyCiTi bus.
Commuters will be productive while traveling, able to send e-mails, read the news, communicate, and engage in work and online social activities, Leukes said.
Transport for Cape Town (TCT) currently manages approximately 300 MyCiTi buses, and another 80 buses are being introduced during 2015. TCT manages three trunk routes with 35 stations, serviced by 22 feeder routes with 322 stops.
On average, 75 000 individual passenger trips are undertaken on weekdays. — News24