Taxi commuters would be afforded 50 megabytes of free Wi-Fi per month on 3G and LTE (4G) platforms, for internet access. This was the South African National Taxi Council’s offering to commuters in a bid to improve taxi services.
The council launched the service, which was in partnership with Telkom, on 12 June in Soweto, and it will be rolled out in other provinces next month.
In the first phase, a total of 1 500 taxis and 50 taxi ranks would have access to free limited Wi-Fi connections within six months, the council said.
In subsequent phases, between 4 000 and 5 000 Wi-Fi access points would be installed monthly.
However, the council assured that the offering would not be an expense to commuters as that taxi fares would not be adjusted to subsidise the provision of Wi-Fi.
The council’s CEO, Nkululeko Buthelezi, said the project sought to provide better services for taxi commuters.
“Fifteen million commuters use taxis and, for us as an organisation, we want to retain them – especially those who are dissatisfied with taxi services,” he said.
“We want to create a good service and attract people that use private vehicles back to using taxis.”
The taxis that offer free Wi-Fi would be branded with Wi-Fi signs and commuters would need to register their devices in the taxi in order to access the free Wi-Fi.
