Braamfontein gets free blanket Wi-Fi
30 September 2015
The City of Johannesburg’s Smart City project took a giant leap today with the Braamfontein Wireless Mesh successfully going live.
The City’s ambitious project is now well underway and will see 1000 wi-fi hotspots completed by the last quarter of 2015 as part of the ‘Smart City’ initiative to provide broadband connectivity to all its citizens.
The City announced today that the entire Braamfontein now has free 100% wi-fi access and each citizen will be able to receive 300megs per day per device. Entrepreneurs, SMEs, students, housewives, employees and visitors alike can now conduct their business on the go, check e-mails and updates on their way to the office or to campus, do on-line banking and shopping and do online research.
“We see this is as very transformative initiative that will turbo charge Joburg’s digital economy. We have set ourselves an ambitious target to get this going but it is really just the beginning, amazing things are coming and the Smart City is here, this is our vision for a world-class African City”, says Councillor Parks Tau, Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg.
As the roll out continues the planned phases of free wi-fi will include the full stack of quad play which includes voice, video, data and mobility particularly around the student corridors.
With the City now having acquired the Broadband Network it is expected that Johannesburg will surge ahead to be the No1 provider of free wi-fi in the country with the ultimate purpose of accelerating digital inclusion, improving access to information, and empowering citizens with new ways of interacting with the City on service delivery matters.
Currently over 50% of all libraries and clinics across the seven Regions are now consuming free wi-fi provided by the City. The planned roll out phases will include key public areas within the Regions such as Zandspriut, Diepsloot, Orange Farm, Ivory Park, Pennyville, Lenasia and Ziberfontein to name just a few.