Transtel and its partner in the launch of SA`s second national operator (SNO), Wireless G, have concluded an agreement to jointly roll-out public WiFi hotspots. The partners made the official announcement at an event in Soweto yesterday.
The roll-out will rival Telkom`s T-Zone project, which aims to establish 100 commercial WiFi hotspots around the country during its pilot phase.
Transtel and Wireless G have already rolled out several hotspots in parts of the Western Cape, and intend to extend this to 100 venues before the end of this year.
The partners say the service will initially enable locations where the 'corporate road warrior`, international tourist and local communities could reliably and predictably locate a hotspot. However, the roll-out would not exclude previously disadvantaged areas, and one of the hotspots will be at the famous Soweto restaurant, Wandie`s.
Karl Socikwa, CEO of Transtel and chairman of the SNO interim board, says Transtel took a progressive step by being the first telecommunications company in SA to offer a fully commercialised and integrated hotspot platform to the market.
"Transtel has identified hotspot services as a very specialised field," he says, "and decided to complement its new offering in alliance with an operator that has a reliable platform."
"Users can expect to gain wireless broadband Internet access at various types of hotspot locations - along national roads, at airports, convention centres, hotels, restaurants and marinas," says Carel van der Merwe, CEO of Wireless G.
"The Transtel/Wireless G alliance has already successfully installed the first hotspots covering all the restaurants in the Canal Walk shopping centre in Cape Town. Stellenbosch University Business School has also been among the first to form a business alliance and enabled the Bellvista Hotel with the new Transtel/Wireless G hotspot service."
Albert Links, group executive, external customer-facing business at Transtel, says the SNO will help build the client base. "The hotspots must align with the SNO backbone."
Van der Merwe says he is confident the uptake will be strong. "There are 600 000 laptops in SA, and more are becoming wireless. In two to three years, it is estimated that 95% of mobile devices will be wireless-enabled. Corporate take-up is growing due to falling prices, and we are sure the public market will follow."
Earlier this year, international research group Gartner predicted that the number of worldwide WiFi users would triple this year, reaching around 30 million. It said that by the end of this year, more than 50% of professional notebooks would have wireless LAN capability.
Telkom is already piloting its T-Zone commercial WiFi hotspot project at public areas such as hotels, malls and conference venues around the country.
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