EDUROAM: BRINGING CITY-WIDE WI-FI ROAMING ACCESS TO CAPE TOWN
Why should students and staff from different universities need a separate guest ID for every university or public institution at which they want to use WiFi? Why can’t the systems talk to each other and make our lives – and the lives of IT staff who have to set up these new IDs – easier?
Can’t we just switch on our device and be online?
eduroam exists to enable just that.
The global wireless WiFi roaming access service allows students and staff to use their home institution credentials to log on at any participating institution. And with eduroam now available in over 100 countries, that number of participating institutions is pretty big!
In fact, today there are nearly 30,000 eduroam hotspots around the world, including universities, libraries, parks, stations, city centres and airports, providing students and staff with secure internet access.
CITY-WIDE WIFI ROAMING ACCESS FOR CAPE TOWN
In June 2019 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.
Now students and staff from any university which uses eduroam, including all four of 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 access their institution’s high-speed network from the City’s libraries and work there as though they were on their own campus.
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.
TENET CEO Duncan 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 100 countries worldwide.
The first week of eduroam use in the Cape Town libraries was a stunning success with over 15,000 authentications from 121 institutions including users from Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Korea, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Uganda, United Kingdom, and the USA. This really demonstrates the power and spread of eduroam.
If you’re visiting South Africa you can use eduroam South Africa’s interactive map to find the eduroam-connected library closest to you.
“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.”
Duncan Greaves, TENET CEO
“Throughout the developed world it is common to find eduroam on city wireless networks, in airports, and even on buses and trains. 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.”
Guy Halse, Director, Trust and Identity at TENET
WHAT IS EDUROAM?
eduroam (education roaming) is the secure, world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community.
Having started in Europe, eduroam has gained momentum throughout the research and education community and is now available in over 100 territories.
eduroam allows students, researchers and staff from participating institutions to obtain Internet connectivity across campus and when visiting other participating institutions.
WHAT DOES GÉANT OFFER?
2 Exabytes* a year is already carried at high speed and low latency.
* (That’s 2 BILLION Gigabytes!)
Federating services and architecture plus eduroam, the worldwide WiFi roaming service.
The research GÉANT enables touches almost every aspect of our lives.
Not only that, but its networking technology is shaping the internet of tomorrow.
Find out more on the
