A free Wi-Fi service available at more than 1,000 hotspots in South Africa has been opened up to owners of certain Samsung smart devices in the country.

Samsung Electronics South Africa says customers who own Samsung Wi-Fi enabled smart devices, which were purchased after March 2010, qualify for the free Wi-Fi service.

Samsung has teamed up with AlwaysOn to provide the offering, and the two firms promise to give these customers 1GB free data every month for 12 months per Samsung device they own.

Samsung says the 1GB of free data does not roll over to the next month if it is not used and that once the data-cap is depleted, customers have to purchase additional data from the AlwaysOn Wi-Fi portal at standard rates to continue using the service.

To use the service, customers locate their nearest AlwaysOn hotspot and register on the AlwaysOn network. Once in the hotspot, customers can then connect to the AlwaysOn network using their Samsung device. Owners of these devices also have to register their devices’ International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) or serial number of the device, which is found by dialling *#06# or on the back of the device, to use the service.