A new Wi-Fi service installed in 60 mini-bus taxis in South Africa has had a huge take-up so far and is proving to be very popular among passengers.
The service was developed by the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) and wireless firm Wi-Taxi, reports businesstech.co.za. It’s been almost a month since it launched, but Brian Mdluli from Wi-Taxi claims that around 4,500 commuters are using it each day.
In each taxi, an average of 75 commuters are taking advantage of the free internet access every day. This means that between 200MB and 400MB of data is being used by each vehicle, as the service is currently uncapped. However, as of August 1, the system will only allow the taxis to allocate 50MB of data to each user per month.
The service has proved so successful that it is set to be extended even further. In six months time, some 1,500 taxis in South Africa will be involved, as well as 50 taxi ranks. Within three years, the service will cover all 250,000 taxis and ranks in the country, reports mybroadband.co.za.
Mr Mduli says that so far, commuters have found the service easy to use because many are quite savvy when it comes to technology.
