During June the City of Cape Town and the Tertiary Education and Research Network of South Africa (TENET) turned on the eduroam WiFi service in 57 of Cape Town’s public libraries. eduroam is a wireless roaming service that provides free Internet access to the research and education community globally.
This initiative means students and staff from any university which uses
eduroam, including all four the public universities in the Western Cape
(Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Stellenbosch University,
University of Cape Town and the University of the Western Cape), can now
access their institution’s high-speed network from the City’s libraries
and work there as though they were on their own campus.
“Throughout the developed world it is common to find eduroam on city
wireless networks, in airports, and even on buses and trains,” says Guy
Halse, Director, Trust and Identity at TENET. “Cape Town is the first
city in South Africa – and to the best of our knowledge, in Africa – to
roll out the service on such a wide scale.“
Says Duncan Greaves, TENET CEO: “Initiatives like this one are
particularly important in South Africa where students who are least able
to afford internet access are often the furthest away from our
universities. These students enjoy world-class access when on campus but
may be unable to read email or access learning resources while at
home.”
Bringing eduroam coverage into public spaces in suburbs like
Khayelitsha and Gugulethu provides another way for students living in
those areas to access online learning material without travelling to
campus or paying high data costs. A City librarian in Southfield
remarked “we are quite excited about this development at the library as
it will increase foot traffic.”
Greaves says while Cape Town is the first South African city to take
this initiative, TENET hopes that other cities will soon follow suit.
eduroam is available at 30 universities and research institutes in South
Africa and at universities in over 101 countries worldwide.
See eduroam South Africa’s interactive map to find the eduroam-connected library closest to you.
The article was originally published on TENET website
