![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Mweb-FON-router-box.jpg\")
<\/a>Mweb FON router<\/p><\/div>\n
Naspers founded Mweb in 1997 and took the South African market by storm with its Big Black Box dial-up product that promised to make Internet access easy.<\/p>\n
The company had a good run, including introducing uncapped ADSL in 2010, but by 2013, Naspers was looking for a buyer to take Mweb off its hands.<\/p>\n
It sold Mweb Business to Dimension Data in 2014 for around R368 million. This included Mweb\u2019s Wi-Fi network.<\/p>\n
In March 2015, Mweb\u2019s Wi-Fi network was integrated into a new entity alongside AlwaysOn, a hotspot service operated by Dimension Data subsidiary Internet Solutions.<\/p>\n
The new company, WirelessCo, was a joint venture between Dimension Data and Naspers. Dimension Data owned 51%, and Naspers 49%.<\/p>\n
Mweb\u2019s standalone Wi-Fi brand was shut down<\/strong><\/a>, and Fon users were informed they could use AlwaysOn\u2019s hotspots for free.<\/p>\n In November 2015, Dimension Data and Naspers announced that WirelessCo would be called VAST Networks.<\/p>\n VAST would deliver carrier-grade open-access Wi-Fi in Southern Africa, beginning with its already extensive indoor coverage in hotels, shopping centres, restaurants, and airports.<\/p>\n It would also provide wholesale access to unlicensed wireless network capacity for mobile operators.<\/p>\n Called LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U), the idea was to provide operators with additional bandwidth over Wi-Fi\u2019s relatively new 5GHz band \u2014 what would later become known as Wi-Fi 5.<\/p>\n Back then, South Africa\u2019s mobile network operators were severely spectrum-constrained.<\/p>\n The South African government had made no progress on licensing the high-demand radio frequency spectrum operators needed for their LTE\/4G networks.<\/p>\n Instead, they were \u201crefarming\u201d spectrum from their existing 2G and 3G networks to roll out LTE.<\/p>\n In such a spectrum-starved environment, wholesale open-access Wi-Fi and LTE-U sounded like a winner.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, it proved to be a dud.<\/p>\n VAST struggled to make money, and Naspers and Dimension Data grew tired of funding the loss-making company.<\/p>\n During this time, Naspers sold Mweb\u2019s consumer division to Internet Solutions for roughly R130 million, meaning Dimension Data now owned the whole company.<\/p>\n As late as June 2017, the official line from Internet Solutions<\/strong><\/a> was that there were no plans to shut down its Fon offering.<\/p>\n However, by 2018, Dimension Data and Naspers were shopping around for a buyer for Vast<\/strong><\/a> with Investec. That was also the year Mweb decommissioned its Fon service.<\/p>\n A few prominent telecommunications players were interested in VAST\u2019s assets, notably Vodacom<\/strong><\/a> and Link Africa<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n