The City of Tshwane's FIRE Africa Awards 2016 win at the 2016 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Mexico last week capped off an illustrious year for public WiFi initiatives on the continent.

The acknowledgement follows wins in June at the World WiFi Day Awards for the same project as well as for a public WiFi project led by Liquid Telecom and the County Government of Nakuru in Kenya.

While these projects and others continue to receive global acclaim, a report presented by public interest research body Research ICT Africa at IGF shows that challenges remain - including limited coverage and access.

Christopher Geerdts, co-author of the report titled 'Wi-Fi 2.0: Global and South African Market Impact' presented findings of the research to the IGF which demonstrate that while the connectivity model provided by public WiFi networks may become a way to bridge the access gap at a household level, there are still obstacles to optimal roll out and use of public WiFi.

"One of the main barriers to accessing public WiFi is that the network is unreliable and often slow or unavailable. Additionally, only WiFi enabled devices can connect to these networks, leaving those who cannot afford WiFi enabled devices to find other ways of accessing the internet," said Geerdts.

Research ICT Africa found that Public WiFi provides complimentary broadband access to mobile data.

"WiFi network operators supply data at a much cheaper margin when compared to local mobile network operators. They can do that because usually the backhaul infrastructure is subsidised by a government organisation and access network roll-out costs are low. However, their coverage is limited to selected public buildings and public spaces, leaving almost all households uncovered. In addition, although the quality of the connection seems sufficiently good when the hotspot works, one of the main barriers to access public WiFi is that the network is unreliable. Public WiFi models may thus be a solution to overcoming cost as a barrier to access, but their coverage is still limited."

On the award winning Tshwane WiFi project, branded as Project Isizwe, the research body found that although the network enjoys more geographic prerogative, resources remain a constraining factor.

"This undermines the low-cost competition that public WiFi poses to high mobile data costs and should be the target of future policies and research, such as RIA's nationwide representative surveys due in 2017," Geerdts continued.

The City of Tshwane scooped the FIRE Africa ward for Tshwi-Fi TV specifically at IGF 2016, which was acknowledged by the the awards as an innovative collaboration between the City of Tshwane and Project Isizwe's content partner.

The Fund for Internet Research and Development – FIRE Africa – is a grants and awards programme designed to encourage, support and develop innovative online solutions to Africa's education, information, infrastructure and communication needs.