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Johannesburg - Internet service provider (ISP) MWEB has offloaded the operation of its Wi-Fi network to a newly formed venture.
In January, MWEB sold its Wi-Fi business and assets into a new venture called WirelessCo. The venture is jointly owned and operated by Internet Solutions (51%) and MWEB (49%).
The venture’s formation means that MWEB ISP customers are expected to have greater access to uncapped Wi-Fi across South Africa, as Internet Solutions also runs the AlwaysOn network.
Previously, MWEB ISP customers only had uncapped access to the company’s Wi-Fi network and 5GB of access to the AlwaysOn network. But now MWEB ISP customers are planned to get uncapped access on the AlwaysOn network as well.
“So, what has effectively happened now is the MWEB Wi-Fi zone hasn’t suddenly been shut down. It’s still there; they’re still operating,” MWEB CEO Derek Hershaw told Fin24.
“Right now, we’re still offering Wi-Fi to our internet customers,” he said.
MWEB - in a statement issued earlier this week - also said that “as an interim measure WirelessCo is using the AlwaysOn gateway to manage access to this new combined network”.
This means users wanting to access MWEB Wi-Fi need to select ‘@AlwaysOn’ from the list of available networks and then choose ‘MWEB’ as their service provider from a drop down menu. Using an MWEB email address and password will be needed to sign in, said the company.
MWEB further said that this is a short-term solution “until a new access gateway operated under the WirelessCo brand is released”.
Hershaw further told Fin24 that the WirelessCo network is intended to be open access, meaning that a range of service providers can offer Wi-Fi using the system.
“It’s definitely going to be a wholesaler of Wi-Fi capacity to companies that want to buy capacity and on sell it or pass it on to their customer base,” Hershaw said of WirelessCo.
“Like Mweb for example: we will do that for customers of our ISP,” he added.
Fon users
Meanwhile, MWEB’s global crowdsource Wi-Fi network offering ‘Fon’ is to remain untouched in this move, Hershaw told Fin24.
Fon makes use of Wi-Fi hotspots around the world to help its users connect to the internet.
The Fon service works by allowing home and office users to partition off portions of their broadcasted Wi-Fi signal to create a shared broadband network.
Fon then differs from the likes of the AlwaysOn and MWEB Wi-Fi networks, which are available in spaces such as airports.
“So, the public access Wi-Fi service is one service. Fon is a community based service which our ADSL customers participate in,” Hershaw said.
“Because...at their home or business they (Fon participants) can apportion that capacity that is available to Wi-Fi users who are also Fon customers,” Hershaw told Fin24.
“It’s kind of a separate platform altogether,” Hershaw said.
*Fin24 is part of 24.com, a subsidiary of Naspers. MWEB is a subsidiary of Naspers.
