Project Isizwe, a non-profit organisation, is on a mission to provide equitable uncapped internet in all South African classrooms.
“As we connect schools, communities and learner homes to the internet, we know teaching and learning become more relevant and young people have more opportunities to thrive in the global digital economy.” — Project Isizwe
Project Iziswe is a longtime MiRO partner and required an alternative Wi-Fi solution for schools. Not only are the existing Wi-Fi solutions at schools pricey, putting additional financial strain on an already struggling system, they provide inadequate coverage and will sometimes cause technical hiccups due to load shedding. MiRO considered all possible options and put a suggestion forward: trial Grandstream’s range of GWN access points combined with a MikroTik router for DHCP (a communications protocol) and user authentication.
After successfully rolling out Grandstream GWN Wi-Fi and MikroTik routing at 20 rural schools thus far, MiRO asked Tim Genders, head of commercial operations at Project Isizwe, what impact this connectivity solution has had at these schools.
“We measure progress (as per the graph below) on the number of users getting Wi-Fi internet access at the school. Due to the improvement, the bandwidth to the school has been flooded and we are waiting for a line upgrade,” Genders said.
“The Grandstream access points appear to be much more robust against load shedding and impure power following load shedding. We have not had to replace a single access point since the deployment,” he added.
Grandstream’s GWN range of Wi-Fi access points has not only solved the issue of range but also provided a stable solution even in load shedding scenarios.
Project Isizwe
The GWN range offers both indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi access points and has recently added power over Ethernet (PoE) and non-PoE switches to its product line-up to simplify network deployments and centralise management.
“We are proud to see Project Isizwe change so many lives with uncapped connectivity at these rural schools. Connectivity opens the door to many possibilities, including coding and robotics in schools, and could lead to great positive socioeconomic change over time. We are very proud to play our part in this mission and will continue doing what we do best: empowering our customers to connect communities,” said MiRO MD Marco de Ru.
To learn more about the GWN range, please click here.To learn more about Project Isizwe and how you can donate and help accelerate school connectivity, contact Tim Genders on tim@projectisizwe.org, or visit projectisizwe.org.
About MiRO Distribution
MiRO Distribution is a responsible supplier to the growing IP convergence industries, distributing and supporting technologies such as wireless broadband, Wi-Fi, networking, routing, voice over IP, internet of things, fibre, access control and IP video. We only supply best-of-breed products, deliver strong presales and aftersales technical support, internationally certified training and finance solutions to our customers. We serve and support business partners in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland. Our brands include Cambium Networks, Ubiquiti, Grandstream, BDCOM, MikroTik, Siklu, Tenda, Ring, TP-Link, Mimosa, Ignitenet, Acconet, Edge-corE, Radwin, RF elements, Ajax and more.
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