Free taxi Wi-Fi tested — with impressive results

MyBroadband recently tested WiTaxi’s free Wi-Fi and was very impressed with the service’s speed and stability.

Launched in June 2014, WiTaxi was the first company to offer in-taxi Wi-Fi in South Africa.

The service expanded to over 70,000 minibus taxis in the past decade. That makes up more than a quarter of the estimated 250,000 minibus taxis on South Africa’s roads.

It would also make WiTaxi the country’s biggest free public Wi-Fi provider, beating major fixed Wi-Fi hotspot providers by some distance.

WiTaxi founder and CEO Brian Mdluli took MyBroadband on a quick trip in one of the thousands of taxis his company has equipped with free Wi-Fi to experience and test the service for ourselves.

The Wi-Fi uses a special Toyota telematics device made by Altech Netstar. It features an eSIM running on Vodacom’s network.

To ensure the experience was as close to real life as possible, there were around ten devices connected to the network at the time of our testing.

We conducted multiple speed tests on the Wi-Fi network using the MyBroadband speed test app while riding through suburban areas and on highways.

To start using our daily allocation of 1GB free data, we first had to watch three video ads and some banner ads. After that, we had to view an ad after every 150MB of consumption.

The peak download and upload speeds we recorded were 8.28Mbps and 10.04Mbps, respectively. The slowest was 3.12Mbps for downloads and 3.80Mbps for uploads.

On average, we achieved a download speed of 5.62Mbps and uploads of 6.91Mbps. Latency was also decent at an average of 51.42ms.

This performance was more than sufficient for basic Internet usage and even more bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming, although users should keep the 1GB daily limit in mind if they want to watch videos in HD.

In terms of specific applications, general web browsing was fast and responsive, with news articles opening immediately.

Feeds on social media apps like Facebook and Instagram also updated quickly as we scrolled along, and WhatsApp calling worked well. Even with quality set to high, we experienced no buffering or audio cutouts or delays.

Lastly, we were also able to stream YouTube videos at 1080p resolution with no buffering.

While the 1GB limit could quickly run out with high-quality video streaming, many video streaming apps have data-saver settings that reduce their consumption substantially.

On YouTube, it would be possible to stream over 10 hours in its most data-frugal mode with a maximum resolution of 144p. Five hours of streaming is also possible with 1GB data on Netflix, Prime Video, and Showmax.

The table below summarises the results of our WiTaxi speed tests, which we recorded on one of 10 devices connected to the network.

Mdluli previously told MyBroadband that the service was being accessed by 150,000 unique users per day and exceeded 1 million total users in June 2024.

The taxis not only connect their passengers to the Internet but also act as temporary connectivity hubs wherever they are parked.

The system takes roughly a minute to start up after the taxi is started and 15 minutes to power down after the vehicle is turned off.

People within about 30 metres can access the Wi-Fi network, enabling short bursts of free Internet availability wherever the taxis are parked.

While some people may find the ads bothersome, it is important to note that these are necessary to fund the company.

The service also collects data on users’ browsing habits and serves optional surveys on some advertisements.

Mdluli told MyBroadband that WiTaxi found most users were searching for jobs and accommodation, showing the service not only entertained but provided a critical service for many.

WiTaxis also uses the Internet to stream its WiTaxiFM online radio station inside taxis.

Testing and data analysis by Wikus Steyn, words by Hanno Labuschagne.