DA leader Helen Zille (CC image courtesy of the Democratic Alliance on Flickr)
The Western Cape Government, State Information Technology Agency (SITA) and Neotel have signed an agreement to provide broadband services to over 2,000 schools, government sites, libraries and medical facilities over the next three years.
The announcement was made by Western Cape premier Helen Zille today in her State of the Province address.
“By May 2016, all sites will be connected with minimum speeds of 10Mbps under this agreement. By August 2018, most sites will be connected by fibre optic cables with 90 per cent of sites enjoying 100Mbps speeds and 10 per cent enjoying 1Gbps speeds,” Zille said.
She said the provincial government is focused on making sure residents can tangibly benefit from the rollout of these Wi-Fi services.
“Neotel has therefore generously committed to funding the infrastructure rollout of 384 WI-FI Hotspots, using Western Cape Government buildings, which will cover almost every ward in the province,” Zille said.
She said government would be subsidising the free portion of user data.
“We believe the rollout of these hotspots will be a game changer for development. It will help reduce the digital divide, make economic opportunities more accessible and generate new business opportunities.”
Part of the Neotel deal will include the establishment of the Western Cape Broadband Foundation, leveraging private sector contributions and providing funding for innovative broadband programmes.
HumanIPO reported in April Cape Town was working to boost broadband connectivity by signing eight third party agreements with internet service providers.
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille later announced a proposed broadband budget of US$20 million.
“The city continues to give action to its infrastructure-led growth strategy by investing in the broadband telecommunication infrastructure programme,” she said.
