The Western Cape government, the State Information Technology Agency (Sita), and Neotel have signed a strategic agreement to provide broadband services to approximately 2,000 government sites.<\/p>\n
This is according to Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, who said in her state of the province address on Friday, 20 June 2014, that an agreement was signed earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
Among the 2,000 government sites are schools, libraries, and health facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy May 2016, all sites will be connected with minimum speeds of 10Mbps under this agreement,\u201d Zille said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy August 2018, most sites will be connected by fibre optic cables with 90% of sites enjoying 100Mbps speeds and 10% enjoying 1Gbps speeds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zille said that their government is also committed to ensuring that their communities can tangibly benefit from this agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeotel has therefore generously committed to funding the infrastructure rollout of 384 WiFi hotspots, using Western Cape Government buildings, which will cover almost every ward in the province.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Western Cape government will be subsidising the free portion of citizens\u2019 internet access, she said.<\/p>\n
These WiFi Hotspots will be rolled out over a period of four years, as Neotel builds the fibre network.<\/p>\n
According to Zille, this means that every citizen will have the opportunity to access \u201climited free\u201d Internet at the Wi-Fi hotspots across the province.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe the roll-out of these hotspots will be a game changer for development,\u201d Zille said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will help reduce the digital divide, make economic opportunities more accessible and generate new business opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
To this end, the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism will also establish a new business incubator to support entrepreneurial talent and aspiring \u2018techies\u2019 in disadvantaged communities to develop software and innovative applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur internationally acclaimed bandwidth barn has achieved outstanding success and it is time to replicate this concept,\u201d Zille said.<\/p>\n
Neotel has also committed to spending approximately 25% of the value of their contract with local companies.<\/p>\n
Zille promised that they will use a number of small businesses as well as local labour during the construction of the network, creating jobs throughout the province.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have also agreed to provide seed funding for the establishment of a Western Cape Broadband Foundation which will focus on leveraging private sector contributions and funding to help deliver innovative broadband-related services as widely as possible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
This article first appeared on MyBroadband<\/a><\/p>\n Cape Town to spend R216 million on broadband<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Cape Town closer to R1.3 billion internet goals<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nMore on internet in the Western Cape<\/h3>\n