One of South Africa’s iconic rugby grounds, Johannesburg’s Ellis Park, has been given the Wi-Fi treatment. The Golden Lions Rugby Union says Ellis Park has become the “first public Wi-Fi-enabled stadium in South Africa” in time for this weekend’s test match between the Springboks and the All Blacks.
As part of its launch, free Wi-Fi connectivity will be provided to all main-stand spectators for this Saturday’s test, the union says.
The network has been built by WirelessG, whose CEO Carel van der Merwe says it will relieve “high congestion” that has “become unbearable for South African mobile and broadband users”.
“All the excitement and energy inherent in a live entertainment environment such as this weekend’s Springbok Test will be disseminated via social media instantly from thousands of different angles,” Van der Merwe says in a statement.
Wireless equipment for the project has been supplied by Ruckus Wireless and uses a 10Gbit/s network design, which will be used for “content rich on-site broadcasting to mobile devices in the near future”.
The facility is also capable of Wi-Fi “offloading” to mobile operators to relieve 3G and GSM in-stadium congestion during high-density events. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media