Data prices in South Africa are some of the highest in the world. It’s not only expensive to have always-on mobile data, but the fixed line is just as pricey.

Lucky with the inception of fibre and an influx of fibre providers the coast is clear and the monopolist, Telkom is now well, no longer holding a monopoly.

This brings competition, for packages, service and most importantly cost. My current setup is Octotel via Afrihost is the ISP and I am pretty happy with uptime, speed throughout the day and service when I do need something.

In the heart of lockdown, I was staying with and working from my dad’s place and the ADSL setup we had in place there just would not work, not if I wanted to keep my job that is.

So, I scoured the internet, exhausting as many online resources as possible and even took to calling friends to find out who the best was. My main criteria: speed of installation, at this point I was not too (I say this lightly) bothered by cost.

Long story made shorter (a smidge) I stayed with Afrihost and had them work very closely with Vumatel (available in my dad’s neck of the woods) to get the line installed and ready for use, ASAP.

To my absolute amazement, the line was ordered, installed and working in 3 days!! I was very shocked and very satisfied and even gifted the tech guys with snack bars and a cash tip!

Months later, all is well, except now I am paying for the internet at my moms, my dads, “mine” and at the beginning - my sisters place too.

Hella amounts of money being spent on connecting to the internet.

What’s the real problem here?

I know many people (friends and family) who turn off their mobile data when leaving the house so that they don’t spend too much (data/airtime) while out and about. Yes, there are ways to control app data usage in idle modes, we could change all update/refresh settings to automatic only when in WiFi zone; and we could also just close all the apps we are not using - but, let’s face it, we are just human and that’s no way to live #adminfordays

Introducing Blueshare

Blueshare is your always connected, everywhere data provider.

How?

The idea is that we all have WiFi at home, so do businesses ie. coffee shops, Internet cafes (of course), and even grocery stores too.

What if we could power everyone’s WiFi together and ensure that wherever you went you had free, easily accessible, strong signal WiFi?

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How does it work?

Signing up for a cheap or free subscription creates your user account. This user account gives you access to any Blueshare network available wherever you go.

Note: Paid for subscription or freely available to all, will depend on a multitude of factors, some of which I am sure I have not thought of quite yet.

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How does Blueshare power everyone’s WiFi?

Well, using a smaller network example. If we could take two WiFi routers and plug them into their own power source and plug a fibre line in each (different line), then write a piece of software that would take the two signals and check which is stronger and then provide that one to a user as a single WiFi connection. If the user moved closer to the second one, and it became the stronger one, the user would see no difference in connection “Connected to Blueshare Free WiFi” but in the background then connection switch to the one with stronger signal, this way always providing the best experience to the user on the front end - that’s Blueshare.

Considerations:

What about security?

On the front end, the user never knows which WiFi router they are connected to. They can never see the console nor connect the WiFi IP address to it.

The IP:

A single connection Point handling multiple connections at the same time and then feeding the user the strongest one.

User types:

User
Provider

Prerequisite for providers:

Must have fibre with 20mbps up and down;
Must be uncapped, untethered, in-shaped;
The router must manage up to 20 devices at a time;

Prerequisite for users: Thinking

Must be a provider of Blueshare in order to be a user;
Has a monthly subscription;

Benefits for users:

Free WiFi wherever they go;

Note: Wherever = any place where there is a bunch of WiFi signals that Blueshare can make use of. Outside apartment buildings, petrol stations, coffee shops, business parks, restaurants, inside malls, office blocks, suburban areas, etc.

Benefits for providers:

A Pay-what-you-want system for users could offset a portion of their internet bill based on how often their line is being used throughout the day.

Controls for providers:

They can set the number of connections available at any given time;
They can set on and off times for connection to Blueshare network.

Ie. A couple might not be home at all during the day and might leave their WiFi open for use by neighbours and people all around that can pick up their signal. They get home at 5 pm and want their connection all to themselves, so Blueshare cuts off their connection (makes is not available) at 5 pm and will turn it on at 8 am again when they leave for work.

USPS:

Super safe, cybersecurity is the most important thing;
Always on free, WiFi, wherever you go.

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The gem 💎

Routers can only have a maximum number of users connected at any time, so Blueshare will be smart enough to tell that should there be a concentrated amount of people in one area and the provider has only set a certain amount of seats available at any given time ie. 20 connections allow the user to choose to avail 10 “seats”. Blueshare will then realise that on the strongest signal, the maximum amount of connections has been reached and then switch to the second stronger with the most amount of seats available.

Over time we can provide the best signal to the most active users of the service.

i.e. The more you user Blueshare, the high priority your connection to the service is. You will be given first access to the fastest connection versus people that have just joined/use the service less often or have d-merits.

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In a real-world scenario, I’ve walked down the promenade in Sea Point and checked the available WiFi connections, and there are loads. They range from very strong to weak and the further you walk, the more you see them chop and change based on proximity to the router offering the new signal.

Imagine all of these signals fed into Blueshare and using smart tech, we did a bunch of gigging to ensure that just one connection popped up on your phone “Blueshare Free WiFi” and that it was strong and like the title, free!

We could have people on the promenade, working on the grass, people walking around Cape Town, always connected, we could have more than just coffee shops turn into WiFi hotspots and all this is possible if we just shared something some of us are already paying for.

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Telkom and Vodacom have tried their own version of always-on internet, but the problem is you have to be connected to one of those (and many others who offered this kind of service) providers. This never took off, and if it did, it was definitely not good enough, because no one speaks about it, but everyone speaks about how expensive mobile data is.

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New Work, this article will explain why something like Blueshare has legs in 2021, coming soon…

Thanks for reading

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