The coastal town of Knysna in South Africa has just become the Largest wi-fi enabled area in the whole of Africa. The principles derived from the South African Government Green paper on telecommunications has allowed for low cost data service providers such as UniNet to be founded, the company responsible for this historic initiative.
Computers with wi-fi connections can be expensive, and not everybody in the poorer areas of Knysna can afford wireless enabled devices. So the municipal authorities installed computers in places the whole community has access to.
Masifunde library is one of the libraries in this area. The municipality took the initiative to fill these libraries with computers.
These computers were meant to provide Internet access, but the cost limitations meant that many of them didn’t have the intended effect.
As part of their project Uninet connected them to the Internet. This has allowed the community to come in and, for 45 minutes, be able to use the terminals for free.
This initiative guarantees opened doors to information, because we live in this global village.
Knysna has become a global village because it doesn’t matter where you live, you can actually have access to information. Whether you come from the rich or you come from the poor, the facilities are the same.
Most of the town’s schools have also signed up to the wi-fi initiative.
For many, especially with the assignments which kids are getting at schools, it’s really a stimulating source.
The children don’t need to walk 1.5 km to the town in order to go on and do research work.
UniNet’s David Jarvis added: “It is an example of a school that has just been deployed in an under-serviced area that desperately needed connectivity. It’s in a poor community and it’s exciting to see the way it has been embraced by the community in that area.”
The article isn’t clear on whether Knysna itself has Wi-Fi connectivity all over the town, or whether it’s only the computers in the libraries that have Wi-Fi enabled computers. Please clarify.