Free Wi-Fi in taxis: Vodacom and Netstar aboard the initiative

Commuters using the country’s most popular form of public transportation, taxis, will soon have access to free Wi-Fi.

This after Vodacom Business, WiTaxi and Netstar came together to initiate this new offering.

According to reports, commuters, taxi owners and owners of SMMEs are set to benefit from this undertaking.

Commuters will have access to the web, minibus taxi owners now provide more incentive for commuters to use their services as opposed to that of Uber and Bolt, and SMME owners now have a platform on which to advertise.

ALSO READ: South Africa to get electric minibus taxis

The arrangement between the three entities is a straight forward one. Vodacom Business will supply for data. Netstar is supplying the tracking device which now doubles as a router. And WiTaxi is the company supplying the app through which the Wi-Fi and data can be accessed.

Vodacom said it also plans to implement a reward system connected to this network via its VodaPay app, which will enable commuters to access a range of content, streamline their lives through cashless transactions, and receive rewards for completing daily tasks.

But this will not be an unlimited amount of data. Vodacom said that each person who logs onto the app to access the data will be granted 1GB of the data available per day.

Streaming an episode

That is still enough data to stream an episode of a series or browse social media on a single trip.

Last year, it was reported that Old Mutual had also embarked on an initiative to roll out free Wi-Fi in taxis across South Africa.

According to the company, the provision of free Wi-Fi was limited to 40 taxis before being gradually expanded to the rest of the industry through its Bridge Taxi finance business.

ALSO READ: National shutdown: Malema ‘assures’ Santaco taxis won’t be affected

In 2014, taxi association Santaco also began installing Wi-Fi in taxis. It planned to install Wi-Fi in 250 000 taxis and taxi ranks.

In 2020, Leep Africa, a Johannesburg-based company, piloted the installation of its product to provide internet access in select Bolt vehicles and in independent taxis to passengers and drivers alike.