SA to launch Africa’s first Wi-Fi city

  1. Posted on Wednesday 22 February 2012 - 11:00
    Sanday
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    Sanday Chongo Kabange in Hong Kong
    Municipal authorities in the South African town of Stellenbosch have announced plans to offer free Wi-Fi internet access to its residents, making the town Africa's first ever tech capital. Conrad Sidego, Stellenbosch mayor, said his municipality is planning to provide free Wi-Fi Internet access to everyone in the town, local media reported.
    Wi-Fi
    Sidego said that they are planning to make Stellenbosch a Wi-Fi town– an initiative by Stellenbosch, Mxit and the University of Stellenbosch.

    The service will be offered free of charge to anyone, and no registration for the service will be needed.

    Large downloads will be prohibited, but all other services (like web surfing, messaging and VoIP services) will be supported.

    Stellenbosch councillor and head of the municipality’s finance portfolio, Pieter Venter, explained that the trial network will go live on Friday (24 February).

    This trial Wi-Fi network will cover the town centre, and will run for two to three weeks before extending the network to the greater Stellenbosch area.

    The next phase involves rolling out the network to all populated areas within the Stellenbosch municipality. Venter explained that the network will reach as far as Franschhoek and Pniel.

    The fast six-month rollout period may surprise people, but Venter explained that the core Wi-Fi network is already in place. This Wi-Fi network is already used to connect the municipal offices and carry municipal calls (hence cutting costs and limiting their reliance on Telkom).

    All that needs to be done now is to put repeaters closer to residents to “fill in” the network and boost coverage.

    These repeaters will be put on lamp poles and on suitable high sites.

    Venter said that they wanted to provide a free Wi-Fi network to Stellenbosch residents for years; but that Internet access costs (hence national and international bandwidth) was a problem. Mxit stepped in to solve this problem for Stellenbosch by making available their unused capacity.

    Mxit CEO Alan Knott-Craig Jr. said that they are assisting with the Wi-Fi project at the request of the mayor.

    “We are psyched to help promote Stellenbosch as the true tech capital of Africa. Although free Wi-Fi can never compete in performance with paid-for services, it does provide a magnet for creativity and engineers,” said Knott-Craig.

    “Our primary value-add is the unused bandwidth coming into our data centre (770 million messages a day requires a fair amount of capacity),” said Knott-Craig.

    Venter said that the Mxit bandwidth will serve their initial needs, and hopes that organizations such as the University of Stellenbosch and SEACOM will also assist when the need arises for additional bandwidth.

    Venter highlighted that they do not want to compete against paid-for broadband services like ADSL or 3G, and is therefore limiting the service to 1Mbps and a 500MB daily usage cap.

    Venter is confident that this initiative will not only boost Internet access and the economy of Stellenbosch, but also attract entrepreneurs and technical people to the region.

Reactions

  1. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 18:38
    MrWashington
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    stefhani.g and dulce.a
    THIS PASSAGE IS ABOUT HOW THEY ARE TRYING TO GET WI-FI FOR THE HOLE CITY AND THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO LET THEM GET ON THE WEB AND LET THEM SEND MASSAGES !!!!!!


    I agre becuse people need stuf
    la chava
  2. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 18:39
    MrWashington
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    stefhani.g and dulce.a
    THIS PASSAGE IS ABOUT HOW THEY ARE TRYING TO GET WI-FI FOR THE HOLE CITY AND THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO LET THEM GET ON THE WEB AND LET THEM SEND MASSAGES !!!!!! :):D:?
    la chava
  3. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 18:43
    MrWashington
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    511 berichten
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    stefhani.g and dulce.a
    THIS PASSAGE IS ABOUT HOW THEY ARE TRYING TO GET WI-FI FOR THE HOLE CITY AND THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO LET THEM GET ON THE WEB AND LET THEM SEND MASSAGES !!!!!!
    la chava
  4. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 19:27
    MrWashington
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    quote:
    MrWashington wrote on 02 March 2012 @ 18:38:
    stefhani.g and dulce.a
    THIS PASSAGE IS ABOUT HOW THEY ARE TRYING TO GET WI-FI FOR THE HOLE CITY AND THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO LET THEM GET ON THE WEB AND LET THEM SEND MASSAGES !!!!!!
    Yes, but what about the sensory details and such?
    la chava
  5. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 19:30
    MrWashington
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    gerardo the main idea is a bout people get free internet sensory is about feilng lesing toching the people shot get free interned because the need licke ose that have interned in they could wathe free internet. ithink yes becuse people need stufe like use
    la chava
  6. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 19:43
    MrWashington
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    timmy

    This article is about a town that gets free internet. This is the first time the town has had internet.

    I think this is a good thing for the city and the people.
    la chava
  7. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 20:14
    MrWashington
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    awjivdgdgjdggggggggsguguefhuggggrFernando


    I say that Africa could do better with the Wi-Fi because it could get them to better money in that place where they have the Wi-Fi. many africans can get new jobs with the Wi-Fi many can start a buisness with the Wi-Fi and they could win better money with the job. but the minor is that the Wi-Fi is only 1Mbps and thats slow.

    the africans may feel better from getting their new source for going to the web.
    hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii >:( jhjj :(
    la chava
  8. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 20:14
    MrWashington
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    ethan
    this article is about how they are trying to get wi fi in that sertin area and let them get to the internet!!!!!!!!!!!
    la chava
  9. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 20:20
    MrWashington
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    my name is andrea - the's passage is abaut the Wi-Fi town– an initiative by Stellenbosch, Mxit and the University of Stellenbosch.and the town gets free internet
    la chava
  10. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 20:21
    MrWashington
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    Daniel

    I say that this passage is about the free Wi-Fi internet in a city in Africa. I think that its good using the Wi-Fi for just finding many jobs in a city. Also I think that the Wi-Fi internet should at least not be free for any parts of this city but the Wi-Fi should be cheaper than the Wi-Fi we pay here in the United States.


    ok
    la chava
  11. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 20:22
    MrWashington
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    511 berichten
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    my name is andrea - the's passage is abaut the Wi-Fi town– an initiative by Stellenbosch, Mxit and the University of Stellenbosch.and the town gets free
    la chava
  12. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 20:29
    MrWashington
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    africa can get wifi because they can raise money and Wi-Fi network is already used to connect the municipal offices and carry municipal call africa are trying to raise money for themself.
    la chava
  13. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 20:30
    MrWashington
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    511 berichten
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    my name is andrea - the's passage is abaut the Wi-Fi town– an initiative by Stellenbosch, Mxit and the University of Stellenbosch.and the town gets free internetis is a town that has free internet
    la chava
  14. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 21:58
    MrWashington
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    FLOR,

    THE ARTICLE SHOWS THAT IA TOWN THAT HAS FREE INTERNET
    i think that she wrote a maybe story
    MrWashington modified this message on 02-03-2012 22:07 with 21%
    la chava
  15. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 21:59
    MrWashington
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    ~~[quote]MrWashington wrote on 02 March 2012 @ 21:58:
    FLOR,

    THE ARTICLE SHOWS THAT IS A TOWN THAT HAS FREE INTERNET how did they get free internet they have free wifi
    MrWashington modified this message on 02-03-2012 22:14 with 13%
    la chava
  16. Posted on Friday 02 March 2012 22:18
    MrWashington
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    Alejandro- This passage its about municipal authorities put in wi-fi for town and i think its a good idea because Africans can look for jobs and nassesary stuff. Ithink its good to have free internet people could use it for school and studing for there test. Its not fair that other contrys have internet and others not
    la chava

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