Africa-Press – Namibia. KEETMANSHOOP is moving towards becoming a smart town.
The Keetmanshoop municipality, in partnership with Leo Canopus, launched free Wi-Fi for the town’s community on Thursday.
Keetmanshoop mayor McDonald Hanse at the launch said access to information is a basic human right, and increased internet access would improve commercial activity and economic growth at the town.
“It is possible that this hard-worn resource could be used for all the wrong reasons, such as social media, games and inappropriate content.
“I thus want to call on the educators here to drive the message home that this free service should be used for research purposes to improve our examination results,” he said.
The launch of the free Wi-Fi community project is the result of an agreement signed between the two entities last year, followed by a trial period during which 77 households could surf the internet at Tseiblaagte.
“The most salient selling point was the reported difference the pilot project made in the lives of students at TransNamib, Tseiblaagte,” the mayor said.
Leo Canopus has proposed to partner with the Keetmanshoop Town Council for the phased implementation of the project through a build, operate, lease and transfer model.
The town council will cover the project’s operation costs.
The first phase of the project was estimated to cost about N$905 226,78 and will connect the Old Mutual Mall and Tseiblaagte’s main street, including the municipality, to the internet under the name ‘Municipality Wi-fi’.
The connection requires no password.
Wi-Fi connections for phase 2 is scheduled to be completed by the end of August, and will cover Tseiblaagte, Krönlein and Hampie Plichta Street.
The managing director of Leo Canopus, Nerro Nendongo, said the aim is to enhance the services provided by the council, while targeting lower-income groups to obtain access to the internet.
“The council would be able to, through the implementation of the agreement, provide internet services, and have smarter meter readings, data collection and quicker response times.
“Our obligation is to set up and maintain the infrastructure, while the council will cater for the operation’s costs for the duration of the project,” he said.
The municipality will be offering a month’s unlimited Wi-Fi access to all community members.
Going forward community members would each receive one gigabyte of complementary data per device per month.
“Today is the culmination of a lot of dreaming, hard work and determination by these two parties.
“For a long time, it seemed as if it was just not going to be possible, but they persevered through Covid-19 and various other challenges, because they believe access to information is a basic human right,” the mayor said.
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