Project Isizwe has received the 2018 Connectivity Hero of the Year Award for the work the organisation is doing to narrow the digital gap in low-income communities.
Established by Cambium Networks, the award is given to a person or organisation that has changed their community by building wireless connectivity.
In SA, Internet connectivity project, Project Isizwe, helped the City of Tshwane pioneer its free WiFi network, connecting 600 000 citizens each month.
Isizwe, which describes itself as an advocate for free WiFi, previously stated that 4.4 million unique citizens have connected to more than 1 500 Isizwe-enabled free WiFi hotspots across SA.
According to the Cambium Networks Web site, connectivity heroes can be nominated by anyone.
Each business quarter, Cambium selects four winners for the quarterly award from the nominations. At the end of the year, one annual winner is selected from up to 16 quarterly winners.
The winners of the quarterly prize win a $1 000 cash donation to a charity of their choice, while the annual award winner receives a $5 000 cash donation, also for a charity of their choice.
Before receiving the Connectivity Hero of the Year Award, Isizwe was named the 2018 fourth-quarter award winner.
Dudu Mkhwanazi, Project Isizwe CEO, says: "Cambium is one of the great players in the wireless infrastructure ecosystem, and to be recognised by them means a lot for Project Isizwe, since we use their infrastructure in our network deployments."
Commenting on other business Isizwe is currently doing, Mkhwanazi says the organisation's partnership with Glencore mines to connect mining communities has expanded to cover the mining communities in Mhluzi and Middleburg.
"We also partnered with Acciona, an independent power producer operating in the Northern Cape, to connect the communities of Deben and Mapoteng in the Northern Cape.
"Additionally, we are working on a system that we hope will assist us to solve the sustainability model post funding for our WiFi hotspots across the country."
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