TshWi-Fi reaches 2 million unique users
Media Release
TshWi-Fi reaches 2 million unique users
29 August 2016
Tshwane Free Wi-Fi – the biggest free public Wi-Fi network on the African continent – is celebrating the service’s biggest milestone to date: 2 million South Africans living and working in the low-income communities of Tshwane have been brought online in the Capital City.
The innovative Free Wi-Fi initiative, which began in 2013, has rolled out 921 Free Internet Zones across public areas in the City. The 2 million unique users have enjoyed more than 106 million online sessions, using more than 2289 TB of data. TshWi-Fi currently has more than 90 000 users accessing the service daily, with up to 10 000 concurrent users.
The innovative project, recently awarded as the Most Innovative Government Program to bridge the Digital Divide (World Wi-Fi Day Awards), has enabled more than two thirds of Tshwane’s population to access high-speed, reliable internet.
Earlier this year, TshWi-Fi increased its service to users, who are given 500MB of free internet data per day. Although only about 7% of users reach this cap, this unparalleled service means that citizens who would otherwise be paying high mobile rates, are able to access the internet free of charge, benefitting from the many resources and world of opportunity that being online enables.
Tshwane’s newly appointed executive mayor, Solly Msimanga is excited about this achievement and looks forward to seeing the extension of the TshWi-Fi network. “I applaud the officials of the City and our service providers who are working to bring more and more of our people online. We will work to expand the Wi-Fi network, the internet speed and connection quality under this new Tshwane government, and we will work to get more communities onto free Wi-Fi than ever before,” he said.
- The City showcased its free Tshwi-Fi project at the Highway Africa Conference held in Grahamstown this past weekend. The conference was hosted by Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies and was attended by journalism students and scholars as well as journalists from Africa. Tshwane participated in Local Government Day together with the South African Local Government Association and South African Cities Network.