Telecommunications provider Orange has partnered with Cape Town-based African Eagle Tourism to pilot a free Wi-Fi programme in its vehicles.
The company said following the completion of the initial test phase it will develop its approach for a larger-scale market entry in order to provide South Africans with better Wi-Fi services than they currently receive.
“It is important for tourists to have access to Wi-Fi services, allowing them to get in touch with family and friends, take care of business matters, research tourist attractions or connect to other online services,” said Sèbastien Crozier, Orange Horizons chief executive officer (CEO).
Crozier said while Wi-FI is currently underutilised in South Africa, Europeans have come to rely on the technology, using vast amounts of data.
“For tourists visiting South Africa it is hard to understand why there is so little access to WiFi,” he said.
“This lack of accessible wireless connectivity tarnishes the perception of the country from a tourism perspective.”
Crozier says Orange is hoping to change how South Africans look at Wi-Fi.
“While South Africa has started to develop tailored service plans based on user requirements, it lags behind the service packages in the USA, Europe and Far East, where operators provide a very extensive selection of data and voice packages to meet the exact requirements of the consumer. The selection in South Africa remains far too generic,” he said.
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