Project Isizwe, a non-profit organization, 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, but provided inadequate coverage and would sometimes cause technical hiccups as a result of load shedding.  MiRO considered all possible options and put a suggestion forward to trial Grandstream’s range of GWN Access Points combined with a MikroTik router for DHCP and user authentication.

After successfully rolling out Grandstream GWN WiFi and MikroTik routing at 20 rural schools thus far, we asked Tim Genders, Head of Commercial 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 school has been flooded and we are waiting for the line upgrade.”

Tim also noted that “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.”

Grandstream’s GWN range of Wi-Fi Access Points have not only solved the issue of range but also provides a stable solution even in load shedding scenarios.

The GWN range offers both indoor and outdoor WiFi Access Points and has recently added PoE and non PoE switches to their product lineup, 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 socio-economic change over time. We are very proud to play our part in this mission and will continue doing the one thing we do best - to empower our customers to connect communities.” says 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 their website on www.projectisizwe.org .