Kenya’s public internet provider, BRCK, is launching its services in South Africa. BRCK CEO Erik Hersman made the expansion announcement at the AfricaCom conference in Capetown.
According to Erik Hersman, South Africa is the ideal market for BRCK, given the large population of smartphone users who cannot afford the internet.
Moreover, the country represents the most developed African state, with a business customer market far ahead of other countries.
“I’m excited to be back in South Africa, where the idea for BRCK began and excited to be bringing equitable internet to South Africa as we have in Kenya,” Erik told Forbes.
“There’s a vast number of South Africans with smartphones who can’t afford the internet costs, so there seems to be a perfect storm for Moja WiFi to operate in,” the executive added.
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BRCK’s expansion into South Africa follows an acquisition of Surf earlier in February. The purchase made it the biggest public WiFi provider in Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, the company is in 2,700 locations in East Africa, with 700,000 new visitors monthly.
BRCK began operations in 2013, founded by Ushahidi’s Juliana Rotich and iHub to provide internet during power failures. The company uses its BRCK v1 and SupaBRCK to offer portable internet hotspots. In 2017, it launched Moja WiFi, which provides free internet to users in exchange for content viewership.
