City of Cape Town to provide free Wifi to commuters

The City of Cape Town has issued a tender for a service provider to install and operate Wi-Fi zones on MyCiti busses. The service will be free to all passengers and is expected to include a minimum of 50mb per day. The City hopes to have the Tender process completed by the end of the year, and that the service will become available in 2016.

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Similarly, Cape Town Taxi ranks are also in line to receive free WiFi . Project Isizwe whose primary aim is to provide free WiFi to South Africa, have announced that commuters using both the Gugulethu and Khayelitsha Taxi ranks will also be in line to receive free WiFi in the near future.The organisation has already succeeded in rolling out a similar project in the City of Tswhane and has outgoing projects in rural parts of the Eastern Cape. Isizwe offer commuters a minimum cap of 250mb at a speed of 15mb per second.

These projects come at a time where a number of major international organisations have announced plans to provide internet access to the entire planet. Google Space X and OneWeb are two such examples. Current estimates are that half the world’s population will have access to the internet by 2018.

Providing internet access to more people theoretically opens up untapped markets, resources and opportunities. The implications for the business sector are huge.