The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality wants to install Wi-Fi boxes across the city to ensure residents can be connected to the internet at all times.
The project is still in the planning phase, with the municipality seeking private companies to partner with for the hi-tech project.
Nelson Mandela Bay city manager Johann Mettler said the project was focused on a future where technology drives processes such as reporting water leaks digitally, and more.
He said data had become one of the most valuable resources and enabled people to participate in the economy and the idea for the project was for the municipality to invest in infrastructure that would enable that system.
“In the old economy, service providers would lay fibre optics and base stations but because of the need for connectivity to be broadly spread, the new economy demands new technology that would enable data to be more easily available and faster,” he said.
Mettler said the idea was for the municipality to place a 40x40cm box on existing infrastructure such as lamp-posts and high-rise buildings that would cover areas with 5G technology for connectivity.
“We want to invest in this so as to make our city digitally enabled so everyone can be connected,” he said. “It’s like having Wi-Fi anywhere.
“We want to connect everyone to the economy, we want to invest in that infrastructure but also derive an additional benefit for the city to enable service providers to buy space on the broadband infrastructure, service providers like Cell C, Telkom, MTN and anyone who dishes out broadband.”
Mettler said they would put the idea through to the National Treasury and should it be approved, the city would then look for specialists to develop specifications and proposals.
“Investing in this would cost billions of rands and as a city we don’t want to spend ratepayers’ money on that.
“Rather, we want to give service providers the opportunity to invest.”