Stellenbosch is reportedly the first town in South Africa to provide free WiFi for all residents. The municipality (with the help of MXit and the University of Stellenbosch) is providing the city with wireless Internet access – no login required. Data travles from base station to the MXit offices to the Rondebosch data center to the WACS cable. Currently, a data transfer limit of 500mb per day at a sped of 1 Mbps per user is in place.

Interesting, and useful, indeed, but we don’t consider free WiFi for a city of fewer than 50,000 people to deem the title ‘tech capital of Africa’. The project is, however, a great act of goodwill on the behalf of MXit. Other private companies with extra bandwidth would be keen to take notice and work with the public sector in a similar manner.

For more information, have a look at the Daily Maverick‘s account of accessing the Internet in Stellenbosch.