​The City of Cape Town hosted a public meeting to inform residents of Subcouncil 20 about its plan to roll out its broadband fibre optic network in the area. The meeting took place at the Alphen Centre in Constantia on Tuesday, 22 March 2016 and was chaired by Cllr Xanthea Limberg, the Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services and Compliance.

‘Digital access for communities has become a necessity. The City therefore sees broadband connectivity as one of the critical requirements for creating an enabling environment for economic growth, development and inclusion.

‘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 to provide free Wi-Fi across communities. Most of this budget has been dedicated to installing fibre-optic cables and switching capacity in a number of areas to connect City facilities where there was previously no broadband infrastructure.

‘The City is committed to playing its role as an enabler in partnership with the private sector in order to bridge the digital divide. This is in keeping with the City’s vision of becoming the most digitally inclusive city in Africa,’ said Cllr Limberg in her keynote speech.

The councillor then responded to residents’ queries regarding the City’s digital access programme, including: