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Cape Town - The City of Cape Town and Orange announced on Thursday the launch of a Wi-Fi network that would offer limited free internet access in some of the city's poorer suburbs.
The Wi-Fi offer will include parts of Khayelitsha and Mitchell’s Plain and forms part of a strategy to connect those who are challenged by the cost of data from accessing the internet.
"What we see is that the expectation for data is huge and there is a great increase of demand concerning the data," Sèbastien Crozier, Orange Horizons CEO told Fin24.
While the project is in its early stages - unlike the universal Wi-Fi programme in the City of Tshwane - it is an indicator that metros have the capacity to deliver internet connectivity.
"The first phase of the project will offer free Wi-Fi to anyone making use of a Wi-Fi enabled device. Users will get a free bundle per day to use as they please," said Crozier.
Mobile data demand
Despite the accelerating rollout of 3G and higher speed LTE or Long Term Evolution deployments, many people find that the cost of data is prohibitively expensive.
The appetite for data in Sub-Saharan Africa is huge. According to data from Ericsson's Mobile Data Traffic Growth report for 2013 to 2019, the region's data appetite is huge and expected to grow at 65% to 2019 and beyond.
Put into perspective, mobile data in the region was at 37 000 terabytes (TB) per month in 2013, and that will jump to 76 000TB by the end of 2014, on its way to a mammoth 764 000TB by the end of 2019.
Orange, while not a mobile operator in South Africa, has been making potentially disruptive moves in the market.
Modern smartphones require more data than feature phones. (Duncan Alfreds, Fin24)
The company has partnered with African Eagle Tourism to provide free Wi-Fi services within their fleet of vehicles.
"Nobody is sure that the 4G, 5G or next generation will be able to answer the demand. So the Wi-Fi is a good answer to decrease the use of frequency," said Crozier.
Despite mobile operators pushing for spectrum to address demand for data, the lack of regulator action has proved a major stumbling block to high speed mobile data services.
Universal broadband coverage
According to the GSMA Mobile Economy 2014: Sub-Saharan Africa report, unique mobile subscribers in the region are set to pass the half billion mark by 2020.
"The mobile industry has transformed the lives of millions of people across Sub-Saharan Africa, providing not just connectivity but also an essential gateway to a wide range of healthcare, education and financial services," said Anne Bouverot, director general of the GSMA.
National policy calls for universal broadband coverage by 2020 and while most would agree that mobile is the correct route given the challenges with last mile cable broadband, 3G too, has acute challenges.
Mobile operators face difficulties in rolling out higher speed LTE services in SA because of a failure in spectrum delivery.
Despite policy on mobile spectrum going back as far as 2008, the regulator has yet not moved to assign the key 800MHz band currently occupied by terrestrial broadcasters, notably the SABC which has proved unwilling or unable to migrate its services to digital terrestrial television.
Crozier believes that Wi-Fi access combined with 3G is the most efficient solution to getting more people online.
"We think a combination of technologies between Wi-Fi and 3G or 4G is a good compromise in terms of speed and efficiency."
Watch this video in which Michael Fletcher, sales director for Ruckus Wireless sub-Saharan Africa, who says that Wi-Fi is ideal to serve the data needs of communities.
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