Project Isizwe, the not-for-profit company behind TshWiFi, Tshwane’s free public Wi-Fi initiative, is confident the project will continue under the city’s new, Democratic Alliance-led administration, despite a planned mayoral review.
Isizwe CEO Zahir Khan confirmed on Wednesday that the new administration, led by mayor Solly Msimanga, has made contact to set up meetings to review the Wi-Fi project, which was championed by Msimanga’s predecessor, Kgosientso Ramokgopa.
Msimanga’s spokesman said on Tuesday that TshWiFi is one of a number of high-profile tenders and contracts that are being reviewed by the new administration.
TshWiFi was conceived of and built by Project Isizwe, a non-profit founded by former Mxit CEO Alan Knott-Craig to provide free municipal Wi-Fi in South Africa. Tshwane was Project Isizwe’s first Wi-Fi project and remains its biggest, with the city providing the funding for the project. TshWi-Fi is available in low-income communities and high-trafficked areas across the city.
Gerstner told TechCentral that it’s too early to say where a review of the TshWiFi project will lead or whether the project might be cancelled or scaled back. It forms part of a broad review of contracts and tenders, he said.
“I don’t see the project being halted or suspended,” said Khan. Project Isizwe will roll out a further 130 sites across the city in the next two months, he said.
He said the free hotspots are used extensively by residents of the city, with the number of average daily connections sitting at about 170 000. Some 920 sites are already live.
“There are a significant number of users getting value out of the service,” Khan said. “It’s really had a big impact on the South African landscape.”
Project Isizwe, he said, recently won an international award from the World Broadband Alliance for the TshWiFi project. The non-profit won for the “most innovative city or government programme to bridge the digital divide”.
Khan said residents use the service mainly to access content, including videos, and to search for jobs. — © 2016 NewsCentral Media
