TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Huge Group to acquire what was Virgin Mobile in South Africa

      6 July 2022

      TechCentral needs your help – 2022 reader survey now live

      6 July 2022

      Call for ‘energy emergency’ to end load shedding

      6 July 2022

      What South Africa can learn from India’s IT boom

      6 July 2022

      Where to next for Dimension Data

      5 July 2022
    • World

      China accuses US of ‘technological terrorism’

      6 July 2022

      Scientists at Cern observe three ‘exotic’ new particles

      6 July 2022

      Bitcoin’s first African adopter plans own digital currency

      6 July 2022

      Bitcoin hints at a bottom – but it may be different this time

      5 July 2022

      China, US war of words erupts over lunar missions

      5 July 2022
    • In-depth

      The bonfire of the NFTs

      5 July 2022

      The NFT party is over

      30 June 2022

      The great crypto crash: the fallout, and what happens next

      22 June 2022

      Goodbye, Internet Explorer – you really won’t be missed

      19 June 2022

      Oracle’s database dominance threatened by rise of cloud-first rivals

      13 June 2022
    • Podcasts

      Demystifying the complexity of AI – fact vs fiction

      6 July 2022

      How your organisation can triage its information security risk

      22 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E06 – ‘Apple Silicon’

      15 June 2022

      The youth might just save us

      15 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E05 – ‘Nvidia: The Green Goblin’

      8 June 2022
    • Opinion

      South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

      4 July 2022

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»News»Tshwane free Wi-Fi reaches a million users

    Tshwane free Wi-Fi reaches a million users

    News By Agency Staff29 October 2015
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Alan Knott-Craig
    Alan Knott-Craig

    The City of Tshwane’s free Wi-Fi programme hit a milestone of a million unique devices on Wednesday. The free Wi-Fi roll-out programme is part of the metro’s eKaelo strategy to boost engagement and government response with citizens.

    “It’s just a number, but it’s a biggie. It means that Tshwane has touched the lives of over one million people, mostly young and mostly in low-income communities. That’s cool,” said Project Isizwe CEO Alan Knott-Craig.

    The non-governmental organisation is responsible for the delivery of the Tshwane network and the record was reached at 8.47pm on Wednesday evening.

    The public Wi-Fi network is the largest of its kind in the country, followed by the Western Cape, according to research firm BMI-TeckKnowledge.

    “In terms of government-sponsored deployments, there are currently around 1 800 active hotspots in South Africa with the bulk of these being concentrated in Project Isizwe’s Tshwane deployment, and projects in the Western Cape,” Christopher Geerdts, associate telecommunicatons cConsultant at BMI-T, said recently.

    In Cape Town, the public Wi-Fi programme has 170 hotspots, though the plan is to construct another 120 in the current year. Tshwane has 633 hotspots serving 165 000 users per month, in contrast to 30 000 in Cape Town.

    Geerdts said that free Wi-Fi was not sustainable, and required a business model.

    “Someone ultimately has to pay for these services. Public projects can be all or part sponsored by national, provincial or local government and/or the private sector. Project Isizwe received donated bandwidth from Neotel. Other Internet service providers and telecoms operators could also contribute, especially if there is some corporate social investment capital to be gained from this.”

    World Bank statistics show that a 10% increase in Internet access results in approximately a one percentage point improvement in GDP.

    Knott-Craig referenced a United Nations position on the universal nature of the Internet, arguing that Internet access was a human right.

    “Internet access is like water, a utility. The poor should be entitled to a daily free quota. Cities must find the budget to do so. Unlike water, Internet access has a proven multiplier effect on the local economy, resulting in higher tax revenues.”  — Fin24

    Alan Knott-Craig Jr Project Isizwe
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleBackspace: ‘Student Farm’
    Next Article Fears Russia could sabotage global Internet

    Related Posts

    Huge Group to acquire what was Virgin Mobile in South Africa

    6 July 2022

    TechCentral needs your help – 2022 reader survey now live

    6 July 2022

    Call for ‘energy emergency’ to end load shedding

    6 July 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Hot Ink certifies and diversifies to maintain competitive printing edge

    5 July 2022

    Increased flexibility with Dell Precision Mobile Workstations

    5 July 2022

    The 5 secrets of customer experience in the cloud era

    5 July 2022
    Opinion

    South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

    4 July 2022

    Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

    21 June 2022

    Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

    13 June 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.