Most of South Africa's metros are already delivering free broadband Internet access through WiFi hotspots, with Gauteng dominating the market. This is according to BMI-TechKnowledge's report: "Public and Commercial WiFi in South Africa".
"There are currently around 2 100 public hotspots, of which nearly 80% are in Gauteng," says BMI-T director Tim Parle, author of the WiFi report.
"Data allowances vary from 250MB per month to 500MB per day, and some networks offer impressive speeds. The business model and approach varies from municipality to municipality," he says.
Tshwane has the single largest network and has complemented this with wrap-around value-added services under the brand TshWiFi, says BMI-T.
WiFi has become well known to consumers as a low-cost and prevalent high-speed Internet access mechanism. According to BMI-T's analysis of market research data, in SA, close to 90% of those aged 15 and above have a cellphone, and 51% of these are smartphones which are WiFi-enabled.
The report also highlights the innovative methods of providing WiFi on many modes of public transport in SA: WiFi services are available in taxis, buses, trains and planes. Most services offer some free access with top-ups available.
"Personal hotspots - or 'MiFi' devices - which allow people to share their mobile connections in a portable or nomadic manner, are a strong growth area," says Parle.
He notes different commercial models exist and the jury is out as to which models will be the most sustainable.
Telkom can lay claim to the most WiFi sites served but is challenged in terms of the number of unique access points in the network. Telkom's growth appears to have stalled, with over 6 000 hotspots since March 2015, he says.
"VAST Networks is the challenger with several large new deployments. iSpot is an innovative company that continues to grow its footprint of hotspots steadily. Some other players that rose to prominence a few years back appear to have retreated or changed their business models away from providing hotspot access."
Parle says Vodacom and MTN are yet to show their hand in terms of WiFi strategy; both for consumer services and carrier off-load. Cell C provides WiFi calling but is not an infrastructure provider or a reseller of WiFi services.
"Residential WiFi will grow slowly as more FTTH [fibre-to-the-home] is rolled out and subscribers migrate off DSL," Parle concludes.
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