Anyone keen to share their experiences in (community) wireless networking?

CTWUG General
#1

Hi everyone,

A happy new year to all.

I’m reaching out to the CT WUG community to find out if anyone would be interested in answering some questions / sharing some of their experiences in community networking?

As a brief introduction, myself and a colleague are currently undertaking a research & design thinking process hosted by the C&D Institute with support from the City of Cape Town. For our project we are investigating the potential of community wireless networks as an alternative internet deployment paradigm for developing contexts and are hoping to have conversations with members of community networks around SA to help make sense of some of the challenges (and opportunities).

We believe community networking holds exciting possibilities for serving the underserved in South Africa and we’d appreciate any insights CT WUG members could offer. All perspectives are welcome.

If you are interested in sharing your insights / experiences and have 10-min to spare this week, kindly drop your email below or reach me at mine (rosseyre@gmail.com) and we can set up a time for a casual phone call (or, if you’d prefer, via email/whatsapp).

Thanks everyone & take care,

Ross

1 Like
#2

I think you’re a couple of years to late with this. This is what the project with WCED achieved (or try to since it was a very badly executed project). Fiber or highspeed wireless to all schools inside the CoCT + Western Cape, and then break out from the schools into townships via wireless.

Most townships are already served with hotspots from either local government, government, private enterprises, small township/rule WISPs or WUGs.

#3

Hi @Jeeva,

Thanks for your response and for sharing the WCED project. Fortunately ours is still being ideated on, and we are open to learning from past & existing projects such as the WCED.

What is your perspective on the state of Internet access in SA? Stats related to affordability are not so good. Many rely on expensive prepaid mobile packages. Appears we can do a lot better. Would love to get yours and other’s thoughts on potential interventions.