Buffalo City Municipality has rolled out over 20 free Wi-Fi hotspots in public places around the City as a pilot project.

Access points have been installed around the CBD, Libraries and Civic Centres across the Metro with access initially restricted to Buffalo City employees, but citizens will also soon enjoy free Wi-Fi as the City is in the process of activating public access.

BCMM ICT Manager Jongikhaya Stuurman said, “Controllers of the access points are currently being programmed to create a separate public access to the network for public Wi-Fi.”

He added that four public outdoor access points have already been activated in Duncan Village Redevelopment Initiative (DVRI) by the Community Hall, Steers in Oxford Street, Cnr of Amalinda Main Road by Clarendon High School and Buffalo City College.

The remaining 18 public outdoor points will be activated by end October 2017. The hotspots will include among others the East London City Hall, Trust Centre, John Forbes Pharmacy, BP Garage, Bhisho and King William’s Town.

Stuurman said the public will benefit from having access to free internet as it will increase access to job opportunities and information as well as decrease the digital divide.

The City’s network will provide the public with 250MB of data per day at a connection speed of 2MB to 4MB per second. There will be a once-off registration required where a cell number will be authenticated for security purposes.