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Free WiFi project reaches half-million mark

Bonnie Tubbs
By Bonnie Tubbs, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 09 Apr 2015
Over 500 000 people in the City of Tshwane now use Project Isizwe's "free WiFi".
Over 500 000 people in the City of Tshwane now use Project Isizwe's "free WiFi".

Non-profit organisation (NPO) Project Isizwe's pilot project for the City of Tshwane - the first metropolitan municipality in SA to roll out free WiFi - has breached the half-million mark.

The NPO tweeted yesterday that it had reached a "huge milestone", with 504 300 unique users now on board, with average sessions per user amounting to 26.7.

As of August last year, over 110 000 people had used the free WiFi offered with the launch of Tshwane's phase one on 26 November 2013.

Project Isizwe - founded by Alan Knott-Craig Jr in 2013 - believes access to the Internet should be considered an essential service, like water or electricity; and just like water and electricity, it should be available to everyone - regardless of circumstance.

Planning and rollout of Project Isizwe's "Free WiFi for SA" initiative started with the City of Tshwane last year, with the Western Cape government coming on board in the first quarter of 2014.

The five sites chosen for Tshwane's phase one were the Tshwane University of Technology Soshanguve Campus, University of Pretoria Hatfield Campus, Tshwane North College, Mamelodi Community Centre, and Church Square in the Pretoria CBD, catering for 25 000 users.

The Union Buildings and Pretoria City Hall were added as free WiFi sites in the first half of 2014, and in July, Tshwane went live with the second phase of its free WiFi initiative, switching on 213 new sites, situated in schools in the Atteridgeville, Mamelodi and Soshanguve townships.

Phase two of the project cost a total of R53 million for three years fully funded. Project Isizwe works on a basic cost per user of R1 per GB.

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