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By Citizen Reporter

Journalist


COJ spends R40m on 500MB free Wi-Fi per day for Joburg residents

The rollout is part of a 2012 project to connect the inner city - a project quietly faded into obscurity at some point and 'took a backseat' for four years.


Thanks to amendments made to the 2020/21 to 2022/23 Medium Term Budget by the City of Johannesburg Council earlier this year, inner city residents can now enjoy access to 500MB of data per day capped at a speed of 5Mbps.

This rollout is part of a 2012 project to connect the inner city. However, the project quietly faded into obscurity and “took a backseat” for four years, according to the current MMC for Finance, Jolidee Matongo.

The aim of the rollout is to “give residents free access to online municipal services, economic opportunities, and academic materials, especially for young people.”

Matongo was speaking at the launch of the project held in Johannesburg earlier this week where it was also announced that the cap per user had been increased from 300mb to 500mp per day.

According to the City of Johannesburg, the hotspots that are already alive across the City are already accessed by up to 6,000 devices. In future, the city plans to make “enhancements” to their infrastructure that will allow the city to collect analytics which “will ensure insightful reporting on the usage of the hotspots.”

There are currently 84 active free Joburg WiFi hotspots across the City scattered throughout the Braamfontein Precinct and in some of the city’s municipal customer service centres.

READ NEXT: Tshwane’s free Wi-Fi project needs a lifeline

(Compiled by Kaunda Selisho) 

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