One province in South Africa has a free Wi-Fi winner

The Western Cape Government’s (WCG’s) limited free public Wi-Fi network is immensely popular, with nearly half a million devices accessing the network daily.

The Wi-Fi network provides each unique device with up to 6GB of free Internet data per month. This amount of data would cost R349 on a Vodacom prepaid 30-day bundle.

The Western Cape started rolling out the network at provincial government buildings in partnership with Liquid Intelligent Technologies in 2015.

Following its initial success, the project was expanded in 2018 with a plan to provide connectivity at 1,600 sites, including public schools, clinics, and libraries.

By July 2022, 1,328 sites were live, and users of the network were consuming an average of 250,000GB (250TB) of data monthly. The target of 1,600 sites was reached in November 2023.

Marc Cloete, the director of the Western Cape Premier’s department, told MyBroadband that usage of the network has continued to grow over the past three years.

In the past six months, the average monthly data consumption on the network stood at roughly 462,000GB (462TB).

That’s an 85% increase from July 2022. In addition, an average of 481,845 unique devices connected to the service per month, each consuming roughly 933MB per month.

Each site typically runs on a 10Mbps line, but this can be increased in increments of 10Mbps up to 100Mbps, based on usage patterns, the number of access points (APs), and the end-user’s quality of experience.

The provincial government told MyBroadband the sites typically consist of a single access point (AP). However, at larger or busier sites, multiple APs are utilised to increase coverage and enable improved access.

“The project team constantly reviews usage patterns and side effects to decide whether to install additional APs at a site or relocate the service from areas where they are no longer required,” Cloete said.

“The busiest sites in the province are Asla Clinic in Mossel Bay (1.4TB per month), Masakheke Combined School in Robertson (1.3TB per month) and Groenheuwel Library in Paarl (1.3TB per month).”

Failed free Wi-Fi projects

Several other municipalities and provincial governments have embarked on extensive and expensive free public Wi-Fi projects similar to the Western Cape.

Two of the more well-known failed projects are Tshwane and Stellenbosch’s free Wi-Fi initiatives. The former started in 2013 and cost R320 million — or roughly R305,000 per Wi-Fi site.

The service was initially installed and managed by Project Isizwe, but due to its high costs, the city appointed Ulwembu Business Services to relaunch and run the project from September 2018.

While the city previously claimed the service reached 1,576 zones by 2022, MyBroadband’s tests of the network in May 2024 found only a few worked, but with unusable download and upload speeds.

The City of Tshwane has also removed the free Wi-Fi hotspot map from its website, while the last Facebook and X updates from the service were posted in August 2016 and February 2021, respectively.

The Gauteng Provincial Government’s public Wi-Fi project is ongoing. It had rolled out 1,200 Wi-Fi sites to government facilities by December 2024.

However, it is unclear exactly how many of these sites offer free Wi-Fi hotspots for the general public, the amount of data users can consume, and what speeds are supported.

The rollout forms part of a R1.2-billion Gauteng Broadband Network project awarded to Altech Alcom Matomo in 2014.

Cloete believes the Western Cape project’s success was down to both a sound technical configuration and good leadership.

The project is a smaller part of the broader R3-billion WCG Broadband Initiative, which provides high-speed broadband to over 2,000 buildings in the Western Cape.

Cloete stated that the WCG Broadband Strategy was thoroughly researched and carefully developed in 2011 to provide a sustainable foundation for the province’s transition into a digital government.

“It has consistently received full support across the political and administrative spheres for almost 15 years due to the benefits it brings to the WCG and its residents,” Cloete said.

He explained that the broadband initiative catalysed the building of backhaul infrastructure, supporting fibre at 91% of sites. “This makes it far simpler to install the public Wi-Fi service at the sites,” Cloete said.

“The existing broadband link is simply apportioned for primary government services, and for the secondary public Wi-Fi service.”