Project Isizwe

Project Isizwe (Zulu translation for ‘nation’, ‘tribe’, ‘people’) is a non-profit organisation, which aims to bring the Internet to people across South Africa, by facilitating the rollout of Free WiFi for public spaces in low-income communities.

We work with governments (Local, Provincial and National) to provide WiFi in low-income communities for the purpose of education, economic development and social inclusion; and to use the Internet as a catalyst for change.

Our non-profit structure allows us to pool bandwidth, utilize local installers and cooperate with Local and Provincial Governments, without the traditional excessive mark-ups. We are able to do this through our network of Telecom partners, which have a range of expertise and patents pending on key elements of the required infrastructure.

The traditional telco model is to price services for what the market can bear. Spend as much as possible, add a mark-up and sell to the customer.

Data rates in Africa are so expensive remain expensive because telcos are spending too much money building their networks.

At Project Isizwe we design our networks the other way round. We remove all unnecessary frills. No expensive extras. No big head office building. And we pass on the savings in the form of ultra-affordable connectivity.

The result is champagne taste at beer prices.

For more information, visit our website at www.projectisizwe.org, watch our animated explainer video, or read some of the media coverage links below.