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Western Cape eyes universal internet with free Wi-Fi

Cape Town - The Western Cape provincial government intends to offer universal access to the internet to all its residents as it drives public access Wi-Fi.

"By 2030 all households in high, medium and low priority wards should have access to the internet by means of various technologies such as public WiFi access, and/or mobile network connectivity," MEC for Economic Opportunities Alan Winde told Fin24.

The provincial government on Monday began launching public access Wi-Fi hotspots in the province, beginning in George and on Wednesday, in Atlantis.

However, users will be capped.

"Each Wi-Fi network is capped and users will only be able to access a certain amount of free data. In Eden the daily cap is 150MB per device per day. In Robertson and Atlantis it is 250MB per device per day," said Winde.

Universal internet coverage

Wi-Fi has emerged as critical technology to expand internet access to the public as the country experiences a mobile network crunch because of the lack of spectrum to roll out high speed networks.

In her State of the Province Address, Western Cape Premier Helen Zille promised that the province would see universal internet coverage in a deal signed with Neotel.

"Neotel has therefore generously committed to funding the infrastructure rollout of 384 Wi-Fi hotspots, using Western Cape Government buildings, which will cover almost every ward in the province.  Our government will be subsidising the free portion of citizens' internet access," Zille said.

Winde though, said that the network was designed to ensure that children were not exposed to harmful internet content such as pornography.

"Each network is protected to ensure responsible browsing. This means that networks are filtered to ensure that no inappropriate content can be accessed," he said.

Modern smartphones have higher data requirements than feature phones. (Duncan Alfreds, Fin24)

The rollout forms part of the province's R1.3bn broadband plan to make the internet accessible, but the government has called for proposals from non-profit organisations to set up Wi-Fi zones.

"The Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism provided seed funding of R2.2m for each project. After this period, the NPOs should be able to find their own operational costs. NPOs have also secured corporate sponsorships. The Western Cape Government will consider these projects as test cases for how to roll out wireless internet to the province," said Winde.

Cost

In Gauteng, Project Isizwe has been tasked with building the City of Tshwane's Wi-Fi network which is aimed at universal access.

Despite the argument from some quarters that a city should be prioritising water and education over the internet, Alan Knott-Craig jnr, the brains behind the NPO, argued that the deployment cost was significantly lower than 3G services.

"The Tshwane network costs R1/GB. That is 1 000 times cheaper than Vodacom 3G (R1/MB). The World Bank reports that for every 10% broadband penetration a country's GDP grows by 1.3%.

"Add the massive impact of access to information and online education resources, and I'd argue that it is specifically because we do have so many pressing social priorities that internet access should be prioritised," he added.


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