The City of Tshwane has successfully rolled out the first phase of its free Wi-Fi project to residents and students in Tshwane at open public spaces in line with the its long-term plan to provide free Wi-Fi to all government educational institutions in Tshwane by 2016, and to embrace digital technologies for the purposes of education and economic upliftment. The first phase provided capacity to 25
000 users in Hatfield, Church Square, Soshanguve, Mamelodi and the CBD. Over 60,000 unique users have accessed the Tshwane Free WiFi network, with average speeds of 7MB/s. With Phase 2 going live the City expects an exponential increase in traffic and positive impact on its communities
The roll out of the second phase will make the City of Tshwane the largest provider of free Wi-Fi in South Africa with capacity for 1 million users in public spaces at 213 schools in Soshanguve, Mamelodi and Atteridgeville. Whereas the first phase provided one access point every 14 weeks, the second phase will provide one access point every two days, which is seven times faster. Collaboration with Project Isizwe, a non-profit making global movement that aims to provide free internet to Africa, has ensured successfully installion of a fully managed free internet zone (FIZ) to the Tshwane University of Technology’s Soshanguve Campus, the University of Pretoria’s Hatfield Campus, Tshwane North College, Mamelodi Community Centre and Church Square. Each FIZ location allows users with Wi-Fi enabled devices such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers to access free internet without any logins or passwords. Please visit www.tshwane.gov.za to find your hotspot and a list of the 213 schools.
