Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa has partnered with The Western Cape Government (WCG) to increase the number of free public Wi-Fi hotspots across the region from 178 to 1,600. This will mean that 6.6 million residents will soon have greater access to public Wi-Fi located at government buildings across the Western Cape.
Challenges:
- One of South Africa’s most enduring challenges is the lack of broadband infrastructure and services in rural areas.
- The unavailability of broadband hinders government service delivery and limits access to economic and collaboration opportunities for the country’s citizens.
- Many people in the province have never used the internet before and require education on how to use it effectively.
Solutions:
- The new expanded public Wi-Fi network will be available across all municipalities and provide 3GB of data per device per month at speeds five times faster than the current service.
- Government websites will remain permanently free for users to access.
- Cost effective Wi-Fi vouchers for additional data will be available at selected retailers in the Western Cape.
- Each of the public Wi-Fi hotspots will allow users with Wi-Fi enabled devices to connect to the hotspot without any logins or passwords.
- The hotspots will be installed over the next 3 years, and the project will run for five years in total.
Results:
- A total of 1,875 sites, including over 1,200 schools; over 200 libraries and approximately 400 other public facilities now have access to Wi-Fi.
- 178 active hotspots at government buildings across 12 municipalities in the province.
- The Wi-Fi network provides 250MB of free data per device per month, and just over 910,000 devices have connected to the network since it was launched in March 2016.
- The extensive network of Wi-Fi hot spots across the Western Cape will also help open up opportunities for entrepreneurial individuals and companies to launch E-learning, E-health and E-commerce solutions that will further drive economic growth and improve the life of our citizens.
