Free WiFi initiative Project Isizwe launches mobile-friendly VoD service

South Africa’s free WiFi startup initiative Project Isizwe has rolled out its services from Gauteng to the Western Cape, giving people access to education, jobs and news resources via their mobile devices. Now, Isizwe has launched WiFi TV — a mobile-friendly video-on-demand (VoD) service available for unlimited access.

In July this year, Project Isizwe announced that it would start implementing over 200 new hotspots across the City of Tshwane. Just a week later, major South African classifieds Gumtree announced that it would help support the company’s vision of providing free WiFi and online services to the country’s economically disadvantaged.

“We want to give free WiFi users access to some of the best local content available, which is relevant to their lives, and create a platform for young people to make their mark in the entertainment space,” the company explains in a blog post.

People within range of Project Isizwe’s WiFi spots get 250 MB of data per day, and will have unlimited access to the startup’s curated content portal called Tobetsa. Among the free sites currently available on the portal are Wikipedia, education portal Siyavula, mobile reading site FundZA, Gumtree and some news sites.

Project’s Isizwe’s latest VoD offering has launched in the City of Tshwane with a bouquet of “hyper-local content produced by young citizen journalists”.

Available on Project Isizwe’s Tobetsa, the video category currently has four channels — Mams, Sosh, Attville and CBD — which are centered around nine themes including art, music, entrepreneurship and food. Take a look.

Similarly, we’ve also seen mobile video streaming service Tuluntulu launch in South Africa earlier this year in an attempt to close the digital divide. The app supports an array of different commercial channels including popular news and documentary outlets Al Jazeera, ANN7, AfriDocs and Fleur TV.