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Connectivity can solve SA's issues

Simnikiwe Mzekandaba
By Simnikiwe Mzekandaba, IT in government editor
Johannesburg, 20 May 2016
Internet connectivity needs to be as available as access to everyday basic services, says Alan Knott-Craig Jnr.
Internet connectivity needs to be as available as access to everyday basic services, says Alan Knott-Craig Jnr.

The Internet can help solve many of the challenges in education, the health sector, youth unemployment and the unstable economy that SA is faced with.

This is the view of Alan Knott-Craig Jnr, entrepreneur and CEO of wireless Internet service provider HeroTel, who noted so much is happening in the country but the Internet is going to save us.

"The Internet is like the hammer that solves all problems," he told the audience at the SAS Contextual Customer Engagement event yesterday.

"The Internet takes out the middleman unless the middleman actually has value, it creates jobs for people looking to launch Internet start-ups who can hire people, and the Internet also lets people find jobs," Knott-Craig added.

"If you look at Thusong Service Centres on a Monday morning, for example, there is a 1km queue of people standing outside the centre waiting to look at the old jobs board and then write down the job they want to apply for. Then they go to a print shop to update and print their CV and then drop off that CV where they are applying for the job and then they go home and wait.

"That process is ludicrous. The Internet can solve that problem, in turn solving the jobs problem," Knott-Craig explained.

The serial entrepreneur is founder and now former CEO of Project Isizwe, which enabled free WiFi access in the City of Tshwane.

In collaboration with the City of Tshwane, Knott-Craig launched the project to provide free WiFi and enable Internet access to citizens. Isizwe is focused on WiFi rollout for low-income areas to boost access around educational institutions.

Since the launch in 2013, Tshwane has connected over 700 free WiFi hotspots, with further plans to have WiFi within walking distance of every citizen by 2017.

"The Internet is coming, it actually doesn't matter what happens. You can't stop or take the Internet away.

"People want the Internet, the question is how fast it will get here," he noted.

Basic service

South Africa has 30% broadband penetration; however, through SA Connect, government is looking to increase this statistic.

SA Connect is the country's policy that aims to deliver 100% broadband connectivity for all schools, health and government facilities by 2020. The objective is to also deliver widespread broadband access to 90% of the country's population by 2020, and 100% by 2030.

Knott-Craig reiterated that connectivity to the Internet should be dealt with in the same way government deals with water provision.

"Water is a basic utility that is available to 85.7% South African households; if you can do that with water access then you can do the same with free WiFi. If the City of Tshwane can do it then every single city in the country can do it," he continued.

"I am particularly excited that in SA, the leading country right now definitely in Africa, is making Internet access a utility. The sooner countries make Internet access a utility, the sooner we will free access for everybody.

"I am confident that in my lifetime everyone in South Africa will be within walking distance of free WiFi," he concluded.

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