Cape Town - A new wi-fi project has been launched in the Dunoon township that will see about 11000 households and several schools gain access to free or very cheap wi-fi through a collaboration between Astron Energy, non-profit internet service provider Project Isizwe, and the local community.
Astron Energy has sponsored the R1 million-plus project with Project Isizwe, which allows more than 4500 learners and 150 educators to have access to free, uncapped internet while the rest of the community will be able to purchase wi-fi for as little as R5 a day for each device.
The project aims to grow local entrepreneurship by encouraging wi-fi hosts and users to sell R5 wifi products, earning 20% profit in a job creation and economic empowerment drive.
Astron Energy has sponsored the R1m-plus project with Project Isizwe, which deploys wi-fi in rural and under-served areas as only 10% of homes in South Africa have wi-fi.
Project Isizwe CEO Shireen Powell said this percentage dropped to as low as 1% in areas like Dunoon.
Project Isizwe marketing head Siobhan Thatcher said: “Mobile data costs 100 times more than wi-fi when you buy it in small, prepaid quantities. This is a prohibitive barrier for most South Africans living in under-served communities. Citizens, learners and educators in Dunoon deserve stable, reliable, uncapped internet.”
Thatcher said education beneficiaries would have access to the millions of free teaching and learning resources, enabling learning in and beyond the classroom.
Astron Energy Social Investment adviser Winny Dubazane said an additional 20 sites would be installed before the end of the year, including at two local schools, Dunoon Primary School and Silverleaf Primary School, with the plan to roll out to more schools in the near future.
Silverleaf Primary School IT co-ordinator Siboniso Qofso said they welcomed the project, especially as the school had a challenge with wi-fi which made it difficult to implement online learning resources for pupils.
Qofso said the school had a computer lab that was not functional because of internet and their overhead projectors in classrooms could not be used because of internet issues.
Dubazane said: “We became aware of the successes Project Isizwe was having in other parts of the country and saw the benefit in replicating the model in communities where we operate, such as Dunoon, which is located close to our refinery in Milnerton.”