Project Isizwe's Alan Knott-Craig re-emerges with for-profit township fibre company, complete with stablecoin

Jan

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Township gets uncapped 100Mbps fibre for R5 per day

Former iBurst and Mxit CEO Alan Knott-Craig (junior) has launched a new project to provide cheap uncapped fibre to South African townships and across the African continent.

Knott-Craig's Isizwe, which he co-founded with Linda Sandler, is the sister company of the non-profit Project Isizwe, which provides low-cost Wi-Fi-based broadband in lower-income areas.
 
What backs their Solana-based stablecoin, and why are they leveraging the blockchain when a traditional credit system could have provided the same? I understand that they would wish to build dApps and so on, but stablecoins are risky business which brings me to the last question whether users will be able to exchange?

They sure had a look at Helium and the like, and I have seen some WiCrypt nodes here as well.

I like the idea, but the last thing I want to see is a supposed stable pre-paid R5, or rather VulaCoin, lose its value.

Also... what are they going to do about Solana's immaculate uptime?
 
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Nigerian scammers would be worried if the education system wasn't so shyte
 
Knott-Craig illustrated his point by comparing a 17,500m2 area in the Stellenbosch middle-class suburb of Mostertsdrift to the same size area Kayamandi. In Mostertsdrift, the area contained just 12 houses, while in Kayamandi, there were 300.
It seems Johan Rupert grew up in 'n middle class neighbourhood then.
Either way, good luck to AKC and co.
 
Pay as you go fibre in townships. I can't visualize how that will work and how it will be feasible. I might be just too stupid but it sounds like another hairbrain scheme from junior who sells a white elephant idea to government who in turn want yet another way to spend telecoms budget that is short term.

This sounds like the township person pays R100 for the month when they use internet but the taxpayer has to fund the infrastructure as the government will probably sponsor it.
 
I think its a pretty decent way to go about it.

But construction mafia's will kill it
 
why are they leveraging the blockchain when a traditional credit system could have provided the same
This was my first thought. In the township, cash is king. If you don't know that then you've never left your Constantia wine farm.

Secondly, at that low cost. How do they plan to maintain those wired networks? A South African township has to be one of the most hostile environments on the planet.
 
The good tax payer pays R900pm

The people not paying taxes pay R150 a month.
Did you see the part where 300 non tax paying families live in the same area as 12 tax paying good people of Stellenbosch. That is actually the template for this whole country. The non taxpayers deserve a break here and there, and tax payers earning tens of thousands a month surely can afford one thousand rand compared to the R150 from people who hardly earn anything above R3000 a month.
 
"middle-class suburb of Mostertsdrift" this guy's got to be joking. Looking on property24, the cost of a +-1400m2 (per his average) house in this "middle-class" suburb costs R14m.
 
So let me state a few obvious points here:
1. Township does not mean poor, so why only R150pm? If they can afford to have BMWs and Mercs parked next to the shack, then they can afford R1000pm for internet.
2. Poor people do not need internet, they need food and jobs. R150pm for internet or starve, tough choice.
3. Once the "poor" criminals discover that they can now simply cut a piece of Kevlar coated cable from a pole, it should stop them constantly stealing buried cables.
4. Once the "poor" criminals have Kevlar, robberies and murders will increase.
5. Once the "poor" criminals have R150 internet, online scams will increase dramatically.
6. Once nigerians see this, even more of them will flock here. Nigerians love running scams, but do not like having to pay a lot of money for internet, so you can see where they will be heading.

Oh Alan Knott-Craig JNR? Not to worry, it won't last too long.
 
So let me state a few obvious points here:
1. Township does not mean poor, so why only R150pm? If they can afford to have BMWs and Mercs parked next to the shack, then they can afford R1000pm for internet.
2. Poor people do not need internet, they need food and jobs. R150pm for internet or starve, tough choice.
3. Once the "poor" criminals discover that they can now simply cut a piece of Kevlar coated cable from a pole, it should stop them constantly stealing buried cables.
4. Once the "poor" criminals have Kevlar, robberies and murders will increase.
5. Once the "poor" criminals have R150 internet, online scams will increase dramatically.
6. Once nigerians see this, even more of them will flock here. Nigerians love running scams, but do not like having to pay a lot of money for internet, so you can see where they will be heading.

Oh Alan Knott-Craig JNR? Not to worry, it won't last too long.
Those Mercs, BMWs, and GTIs are already chowing the maximum of their disposable income. No way you can squeeze in another R1k monthly expense.
 
“You have to sell hours and days, not megs and gigs, because the average person simply cannot measure how much data they are using,” Knott-Craig explained.

“Time-based data is the only way to avoid unpleasant surprises and build trust with users.”

To facilitate this, Isizwe developed a Solana-based stablecoin called VulaCoin.

Kayamandi residents buy VulaCoin, stored in a mobile wallet created for them upon signing up for the service, and can then purchase a chunk of Internet time as and when needed.

“Customers are able to load the wallet via debit or credit card, voucher, and with resellers located in the community,” Briggs said.

Isizwe’s CEO said the wallet facilitated low-cost transactions, as customers were not charged a per-transaction cost to purchase prepaid Internet.

“A R5 transaction for 24 hours of Internet access would ordinarily incur bank charges equal to around half of the value,” Briggs said.
You literally don't need crypto to do this. They probably have grander ideas of locking people into a crypto-based ecosystem where they use these coins to buy other things if I were to hazard a guess.

I think it is a sound business model, but there are a few issues that I don't see easy solutions for.
1) Security of infrastructure. Cellphone towers do not have to be placed in easy to access locations. They can be on top of a shopping centre for example. Or they can be a bit further away from homes so you can put up beefier security. If you are putting a wifi router on top of a pole, it is an easy target for theft.
2) Illegal activity on the poles. Townships are rife with illegal electricity connections, the same people doing it will go and cut up your nice new fibre line.
 
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You literally don't need crypto to do this. They probably have grander ideas of locking people into a crypto-based ecosystem where they use these coins to buy other things if I were to hazard a guess.

I think it is a sound business model, but there are a few issues that I don't see easy solutions for.
1) Security of infrastructure. Cellphone towers do not have to be placed in easy to access locations. They can be on top of a shopping centre for example. Or they can be a bit further away from homes so you can put up beefier security. If you are putting a wifi router on top of a pole, it is an easy target for theft.
2) Illegal activity on the poles. Townships are rife with illegal electricity connections, the same people doing it will go and cut up your nice new fibre line.
You know, one can but hope that some moron will think that an illegal fiber connection can be made by twisting wires together.
 
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