The R1-billion South African tech company that died quietly

[Hanno Labuschagne]

The R1-billion South African tech company that died quietly

Wi-Fi provider VAST networks, once valued at over R1 billion, was unceremoniously shut down last year and none of its former shareholders want to talk about the company.

It is currently uncertain whether its network remains active and what is happening with its assets like its Wi-Fi hotspots and its exclusivity agreements with establishments.

VAST Networks was established in 2014 as a joint venture between Dimension Data and Naspers, which owned 51% and 49% of the company respectively.

 

[deweyzeph]

It was always going to be an uphill battle to make money from WIFI hotspots. Personally I would never use a paid-for WIFI service when I can much more easily use my mobile data instead. No fiddling around with captive portals, entering CC details, etc. On top of that, people expect free WIFI, and if they have to pay for WIFI they're just simply going to use their mobile data instead.

 

[Willie Trombone]

How was it ever valued at 1 billion?
Perhaps that was before LTE and lower cost internet was a thing...
I used them once or twice, but YOH... the number of times their system was on the blink and the number of times they changed the way you authenticate... I just gave up.

 

[rpm]

How was it ever valued at 1 billion?
Perhaps that was before LTE and lower cost internet was a thing...
I used them once or twice, but YOH... the number of times their system was on the blink and the number of times they changed the way you authenticate... I just gave up.

At the time Wi-Fi offloading and U-LTE was the talk of the town. They also had exclusive rights in many malls, hotels, and other buildings which added to the valuation.

 

[Willie Trombone]

At the time Wi-Fi offloading and U-LTE was the talk of the town. They also had exclusive rights in many malls, hotels, and other buildings which added to the valuation.

Good point. I used to use VAST at Citi Lodges if I'm not mistaken... they were all over the malls. I imagine it wasn't a cheap exercise. I would love to see their revenue over time from the 2000s. In the early 2000s I used to use a US service via my company. Was ridiculously expensive, but won me over because it had a desktop client.

 

[mr_norris]

From Vast to Past

 

[backstreetboy]

It was always going to be an uphill battle to make money from WIFI hotspots. Personally I would never use a paid-for WIFI service when I can much more easily use my mobile data instead. No fiddling around with captive portals, entering CC details, etc. On top of that, people expect free WIFI, and if they have to pay for WIFI they're just simply going to use their mobile data instead.

Mobile data was still expensive back then. Pnp also gave me 1.5gig data free p/m back in the day.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

making money from data is a difficult business, if you don't have any real incentives like always on everywhere availability.

I'd rather use my RAIN sim in my dual sim phone to hotspot anywhere I am than relying on some dodgy wifi.

 

[MrGray]

Easy to see how this was doomed in hindsight. Yet it seems that various politicians still seem to want to spend billions on wifi hotspot networks, etc, when it would probably be just as efficient to use the money to hand out cellular data packages.

 

[Pythonista]

Bet ya the directors made a packet ...

 

[konfab]

It was always going to be an uphill battle to make money from WIFI hotspots. Personally I would never use a paid-for WIFI service when I can much more easily use my mobile data instead. No fiddling around with captive portals, entering CC details, etc. On top of that, people expect free WIFI, and if they have to pay for WIFI they're just simply going to use their mobile data instead.

Exactly.

And I think with the slow tidal wave of fibre and its uncapped glory, it becomes more of an expense of charging people for it than giving it out for free for a business that has a vested interest in keeping customers on its premises.

 

[blowdart18]

At the time Wi-Fi offloading and U-LTE was the talk of the town. They also had exclusive rights in many malls, hotels, and other buildings which added to the valuation.

I am still surprised Telkom did not do this with their network, I see article after article of spectrum this and spectrum that.

Here we sitting with a WIFI network that you could have incentivized users to use instead of using valuable tower space for traffic intensive programs.

VAST could have become well primed to manage similar traffic.
.

 

[TEXTILE GUY]

Bet ya the directors made a packet ...

Unlike SOEs which suffered from packet loss

 

[Swa]

Was never going to succeed with what they charged. There was literally no incentive to use them over cellular data. Wifi could have made a killing just like wisps, but instead they wanted to charge the same as existing solutions instead of cornering the market over expensive data and fixed connections.

 

[Yskasmetnstoof]

When Koos "Dollars" moves into something he asset strips it and take the money overseas. He is South Africa's own Tony O'Reilly. Except he was kak at rugby ant T O'R was good.