Cape Town MyCiti to offer free wi-fi

Cape Town - The MyCiTi rapid bus service could soon be offering passengers free Wi-Fi.

BDLive reports the city is conducting a pilot project, which would allow passengers to access the free wi-fi while travelling or waiting at the various stations across Cape Town. 

It would start with a pilot project ahead of the planned roll-out, which aims to encourage more people to make use of the city’s public transport service as it would enable them to do work while travelling. 
 
The City of Cape Town’s aim to expand wi-fi in the City comes on the back of the South African National Taxi Council rolling out its own free Wi-Fi access programme. 

The ambitious plan to roll out a free Wi-Fi programme for commuters is expected to take three years and would involve an estimated 1 500 taxis and 50 taxi ranks. 

Fin24tech reports that in addition to the plan to expand connectivity across the MyCiti Bus network the City of Cape Town and Orange have also announced plans to launch a wi-fi network that would offer limited free internet access in some of the city's poorer suburbs.

The Wi-Fi offer will include parts of Khayelitsha and Mitchell’s Plain and forms part of a strategy to connect those who are challenged by the cost of data from accessing the internet.

At the announcement Mayor Patricia de Lille said the new Wi-Fi provision was due to the city’s City’s Universal Broadband Network strategy, which is geared towards rolling out broadband infrastructure throughout the metro, at a reported R1,3bn roll-out plan over the next seven years.

"The first phase of the project will offer free Wi-Fi to anyone making use of a Wi-Fi enabled device. Users will get a free bundle per day to use as they please," Sèbastien Crozier, Orange Horizons CEO told Fin24tech.