MyCiti to offer free WiFi

The City of Cape Town issued a statement saying that MyCiti busses will be offering free 50MB of WiFI to passengers.

“We are pleased to announce that we have engaged in a project to expand the availability of internet access to the public through the provision of Wi-Fi on all MyCiti buses in the near future,” said Cape Town Mayor, Patricia De Lille.

What you can do with 50MB

According to Virgin Mobile, if you plan to just check your email once or twice a day, 50MB will be enough. However, heavier surfing will mean that you will run out of data quickly.

According to Cell C’s data calculator with 50MB of data will allow for three hours of instant messaging, with about seven social media updates.

Or two hours of instant messaging with 36 social media updates.

Tender process

The City has issued a tender for a service provider to install and operate a Wi-Fi internet access service on all MyCiti buses.
Passengers will be able to connect their own devices to the internet using the Wi-Fi provided on MyCiti buses.

“We want the service to be available on every operating MyCiti bus at all times whilst in service,” said De Lille.

Basic use of the service will be free, however each passenger will only have a limited amount of data each day.

“The minimum no charge data allowance per day per passenger will be no less than 50 MB,” said De Lille.

De Lille said that they anticipate that the tender process will be completed in the latter part of the year.

“Thereafter, it is our hope that the successful service provider will operate the Wi-Fi access service on a pilot basis for six months, after which Wi-Fi will progressively become available on all MyCiti routes and buses over the following six months,” said De Lille.