@matthewkerolos Day 23 of our South African journey🇿🇦 with Al Knott-Craig🛜 Al is the former CEO of Mixit, founder of Herotel and and Fibretime - which brings internet to the townships. Companies like Fibretime truly change the country and I’m thankful for Al for having us out to see the company in action. #southafrica #business #capetown ♬ original sound - Matthew Kerolos

Circles of Connection

In Wajikeleza, where Winston Mankunku Ngozi’s tenor saxophone traces a circling Cape‑jazz pulse and Mike Perry, Richard Pickett, and Mike Campbell weave the harmonic and rhythmic backbone, you hear the same movement reshaping South Africa’s digital landscape: communities once kept at the margins now turning toward possibility As Nokia and Fibertime roll out prepaid township fibre, they echo the song’s spirit — a rhythm of access that flows in cycles, infrastructure that listens to lived reality, and technology that meets people where they are. The track’s warm, communal groove becomes a metaphor for this new model of connectivity: not a top‑down broadcast, but a shared improvisation where households, providers, and neighbourhoods co‑create the beat of modern inclusion.

🎶 🇿🇦📡🚀🔌🌐💡🏙️📶🛠️🤝⚡🏗️💸🌍 🔊 Wajikeleza - Winston Mankunku Ngozi

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South Africa’s digital future is shifting fast.

A new prepaid fibre model is rewriting who gets to be connected — and how.

🌍 A New Wave of Township Connectivity

Nokia and Fibertime are accelerating fibre broadband access across South Africa’s underserved townships, using a prepaid model that brings high‑speed internet to communities long excluded from traditional infrastructure. Their partnership enables Fibertime to deploy Nokia’s Lightspan access nodes, Wi‑Fi 6 ONTs, and semi‑mobile fibre networks that keep users connected anywhere in the community, not just at homeNokia+1. This shift is transforming fibre from a luxury into an everyday utility for millions.

🎒 Behind the Scenes With Alan Knott‑Craig Jr

Fibertime founder Alan Knott‑Craig Jr recently took ITWeb on an exclusive behind‑the‑scenes tour of the company’s township rollout, showing how the team trenches, installs, and activates fibre in dense, complex neighbourhoods. He explains that the mission is simple: close South Africa’s digital divide by offering uncapped 100Mbps internet for just R5 per day, a model made possible through Nokia’s scalable fibre technology and automated ONT activation tools. The result is a frictionless, contract‑free experience designed for real township economics.

🏗️ Infrastructure Built for Real Life

South Africa’s connectivity challenge has always been about infrastructure — long distances, informal housing layouts, and the high cost of mobile data. Nokia’s fibre solutions allow Fibertime to bypass these barriers by building semi‑mobile fibre networks that create a single township‑wide Wi‑Fi identity, letting users stay connected as they move through their neighbourhoods. This approach blends the reliability of fibre with the flexibility of mobile, creating a new category of access built for township life.

💸 The Power of Prepaid Fibre

Instead of contracts or debit orders, residents buy daily vouchers from local spaza shops or banking apps and activate them instantly in the Fibertime app. This prepaid model mirrors how township communities already buy electricity, airtime, and essentials — making fibre intuitive, affordable, and culturally aligned. With Nokia’s automation and AI‑powered network tools, Fibertime can connect up to 1,200 households per day, scaling rapidly while keeping service reliable.

🔥 A Youth‑Driven Tech Shift

For young South Africans, this isn’t just infrastructure — it’s opportunity. Prepaid fibre unlocks online education, remote work, gaming, streaming, and entrepreneurship in places where mobile data once limited digital participation. Nokia and Fibertime’s rollout across cities like Cape Town, Johannesburg, Gqeberha, Mangaung, and Stellenbosch is setting the stage for a new generation of township creators, coders, and innovators. It’s not just fibre; it’s a cultural upgrade.

#TownshipTech 🚀 #FibreForAll 🌍 #PrepaidInternet 💸 #DigitalInclusion 🔌 #SouthAfricaOnline 📶