Flickr CC image courtesy of Mohammed Moosa
South African internet service provider (ISP) MWEB has announced a “high street” deployment of free Wi-Fi services along Florida Road in Durban, South Africa.
“Florida Road is a great place to demonstrate the possibilities that high-speed Wi-Fi enables,” said Nathier Kasu, general manager (GM) at MWEB Wi-Fi. “We’ve created a Wi-Fi zone, rather than a Wi-Fi hotspot, to deliver a superior experience to users, wherever they may be on the high street.”
He said while Wi-Fi hotspots tend to be limited by their single access points, Wi-Fi zones offer multiple access points in a single indoor-outdoor environment, resulting in faster, more reliable service.
“Our vision here is to augment the real-world experiences of restaurants, coffee shops, and hotels, with a digital experience that allows people to connect more, stream more, capture more and, simply, do more,” Kasu said.
He said the installation of services like these could support the rollout of broadcast services including video-on-demand (VoD).
“As a city we are excited to see the expansion of super-fast uncapped Wi-Fi across Durban. MWEB Wi-Fi will further boost the Florida Road area as it is also used as a meeting venue for business people as well as local residents,” said Phillip Sithole, head of Durban Tourism.
MWEB said the service would also provide real time analytics and location-based services to local businesses.
“This will enable venue owners to better understand their customers, and further improve their experiences,” the company said.
Last year MWEB rolled out free Wi-Fi services at Canal Walk Shopping Centre in Cape Town during the festive season. This was followed by the announcement that the company had partnered with crowdsourced Wi-FI hotspot firm Fon to create a network of free uncapped Wi-Fi zones in South Africa.
