In an initial rollout test, the residents of Skemering and Uitkoms retirement homes in Potchefstroom now have uncapped Wi-Fi for R50 per month. This initiative comes as a result of talks between a Democratic Alliance councillor Madra de Bruin and internet provider Wi-5. According to reports, de Bruin contacted Wi-5 Wireless Internet Services to initiate the project, which went live on May 23rd.
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In this new initiative, residents of the Uitkoms and Skemering retirement centres get access to uncapped Wi-Fi with a 5 Mbps download speed and a 2 Mbps upload speed for R50 per device. According to Wi-5, the service is entirely uncapped, unshaped, and unthrottled, and that the hotspots support 2.4 GHz or 5.8 GHz connections. There are 27 access points throughout the centres in total.
“Our main network engineer developed this central system using TP-Link outdoor access points, with a mix of Mikrotik routing and Ubiquity backhaul technology,” Wi-5 marketing manager Jackie Strydom said. The number of access points ensures that all residents has adequate coverage wherever they are in the retirement centre.
“When we took on this project, it was not for financial gain but rather to give a much-needed service to the elder community of Potchefstroom, who is in dire need of affordable Internet access,” Strydom said. The entire Wi-Fi system is managed remotely by Wi-5.
“This enables them to be in contact with their families who are not close by, without breaking their budgets with mobile data or mobile costs,” she said.
