Ancient Cape Town site logs on to free Wi-Fi

Cape Town’s oldest heritage site, the Company’s Garden dates back to the 1650s, but is now being brought firmly into the future with the introduction of free wireless Internet access.

Says Cape Town Partnership CEO, Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana: ‚”The Company’s Garden is the green heartbeat of our city and a space that is being used more and more for leisure, art, installations and community experiences. Our commitment at The Cape Town Partnership is to unlock the city for more people and this means making the most of our public spaces: the spaces in between that define a city by its people and their experiences. Free Wi-Fi is sure to add extra purpose and a reason to visit this quintessentially Cape Town space.‚”

The free wireless project is result of the collaborative efforts of The City of Cape Town, The Cape Town Partnership, Connected Space, Iziko Museums, Company’s Garden and City Parks, and is a test case for the roll out of further public wireless hotspots in the central city.

Technical provider, Connected Space , are installing signage to alert visitors to the Wi-Fi zone parameters: an area which will include the Company’s Garden’s restaurant, and outside of the aviary.

“This unique partnership allows us to bring the convenience and benefits of free Wi-Fi to the public space while giving people the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the Company’s Garden. We are committed to providing the best network and user friendly experience to those using the free service and hope that in time this initiative can grow‚””, said Ryan de Kock, Connected Space technical manager.

Users will be directed to a URL where they will log in. A support line 072 979 5056 will assist those struggling to connect. For each active user, there will be a 100MB cap per person, per day.

Recently The Company’s Garden has also implemented a new tree labelling project and placed new tree labels on the many historic and ancient trees in The Company’s Garden. Many of these labels have a QR Code (Quick Reference code) and with the use of a smart phone, visitors can scan these QR codes via the use of a bar-code scanning application, which will read the code and take the user to a web-page containing further information about the tree – as well as other interesting facts and information. The free Wi-Fi will facilitate easy and free access to these web-pages which also have a translation link so that the user will be able to read the information about the tree in their own language.

Sponsors who wish to support the QR code tree labelling project, as well as greening projects in and around The Company’s Garden, will have their logo added to these web-pages with links to other web-sites that market their companies.

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