Photo by: Duane Daws
The city of Johannesburg announced the success of its Smart City project that kicked off with the Braamfontein Wireless Mesh successfully going live.
“We see this is as very transformative initiative that will turbo charge Joburg’s digital economy,” City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor Parks Tau said in a statement on Wednesday.
“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.”
From Wednesday, Braamfontein officially has free 100% WiFi access for all citizens and they will have access to 300megs of data per day per device.
This facility will allow entrepreneurs, SMEs, students, employees and visitors to conduct their business on the go, check e-mails and updates on their social networks on their way to the office or to campus, as well as have access to their on-line banking or get some shopping done.
The City’s project is well underway and will see 1 000 WiFi hotspots completed by the last quarter of 2015 as part of the ‘Smart City’ initiative to provide broadband connectivity to all its citizens.
“As the rollout continues, the planned phases of free WiFi will include the full stack of quad play which includes voice, video, data and mobility particularly around the student corridors,” Tau said.
With the city being connected, it is expected that Johannesburg will surge ahead to be the number one provider of free WiFi in the country.
The ultimate purpose of the project is to accelerate 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 WiFi provided by the City.”
Tau said that the planned roll out phases would include key public areas within the Regions such as Zandspriut, Diepsloot, Orange Farm, Ivory Park, Pennyville, Lenasia and Ziberfontein to name just a few.