The City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services and Compliance, Councillor Xanthea Limberg, today unveiled the City’s 190th Wi-Fi hotspot, situated at the Kuyasa Clinic in Khayelitsha.

A further 30 Wi-Fi zones are planned to go live by June this year, and about 60 more in the following financial year to June 2017. 

‘We are in the process of infrastructure upgrades at a number of our clinics and I am pleased that they have been included in the digital inclusion project for free Wi-Fi. Our health facilities attract a large number of residents on a daily basis and the free Wi-Fi will be a welcome option for them to keep occupied while waiting for services. The availability of this secondary service will help to ensure that our residents have a more pleasant experience at our facilities,’ said Councillor Limberg.

The City's capital budget for its Broadband Network Roll-out Project is R218 million for the current financial year, of which R33 million has been spent on rolling out a wireless network. Most of this budget has been dedicated to installing fibre-optic cables and switching capacity in a number of areas where there was previously no broadband infrastructure. This approach results in a lasting asset that will benefit residents for years to come.

‘Digital access for communities can no longer be viewed as a privilege but more as a necessity. The City will therefore continue to honour its commitment to provide free Wi-Fi across communities by operating Wi-Fi zones both inside and outside public buildings, and extending these to public spaces across the city,’ said Councillor Limberg.

Access to cost-effective and high-speed internet is essential to connecting residents with economic opportunities, online news, social media and other services. It is an important foundation for budding entrepreneurs. Today, entrepreneurs can effectively manage their businesses while on the go and not necessarily from an office.  A lack of internet access could mean missed opportunities which prevent many people from achieving their goals and dreams.

In a successful public-private partnership pilot, the City engaged with two commercial service providers on this project. As the pilot project draws to a close, the lessons learned have been used to prepare a tender which will allow the City to contract with commercial service providers to deliver internet access using municipal infrastructure on a ‘concession’ basis. The City will provide the infrastructure (including access points and backhaul network), while the contracted service providers will deliver the service to the public and also pay for the internet bandwidth.

‘We would like to acknowledge and thank our partners in the private sector who have helped to bring this project to fruition. This public Wi-Fi provision is a prime example of how the private sector, government and the public can make progress possible, together,’ added Councillor Limberg.

The roll-out of the wireless network seeks to bridge the digital divide, in line with the City’s vision to become the most digitally connected city in Africa.