Telkom today announced enhancements to its free Wi-Fi offering that it believes will make access to internet and the management of time online, for non-Telkom customers, much easier across more than 6000 Wi-Fi hotspots nationally.

Manelisa Mavuso, Telkom’s Managing Director: Content and Value Added Services, says, “Free Wi-Fi, for business professionals, entrepreneurs, students or just for social media users, is always an attractive and welcome proposition. The changes we’ve made to our Wi-Fi platform will greatly enhance the experience of users that are not on our network as it now allows them to connect securely and seamlessly to the country’s biggest free Wi-Fi access network.

“From Monday 22 June customers will be able to connect to Telkom Wi-Fi by registering once in two simple steps. Once registered, customers that find themselves in a Telkom Wi-Fi hotspot will be able to login into their accounts with their user name and password and connect with just one click. It’s that easy,” continued Mavuso.

The company launched its 30 minutes of free Wi-Fi access to non-Telkom customers from an initial 400 hot-spots in August 2013. Users were required to connect to its free Wi-Fi access by utilising a solution that entailed the sending of a SMS to acquire a unique pin each time connection was required at a Telkom Wi-Fi hotspot.

In addition, non-Telkom customers will now be able to purchase additional Wi-Fi bundles, for same-day usage, in denominations of 30 or 60 minutes at R15 and R25 respectively. The purchases can be made once the 30 free minutes have expired using a credit card.

“Although physical vouchers are still available at Telkom stores, the introduction of Wi-Fi bundle purchases by card means bundles can be bought online through the Wi-Fi portal without leaving the hotspot making the transaction as seamless as possible,” says Mavuso.

With the introduction of new features such as “Event History” and a real time count-down clock that indicates the time left on an internet session, customers will be able to easily manage their free minutes and purchased Wi-Fi access bundle time.

Telkom’s post-paid customers, and pre-paid customers that purchase airtime to the value of R50 or more, will continue to connect via EAP-SIM and MAC Authentication to Wi-Fi in a Telkom hotspot. User name and Password authentication for Telkom contract and pre-paid customers is scheduled to launch towards the end of August.

A map indicating Telkom Wi-Fi hotspots can be found here: http://www.telkommobile.co.za/Wi-Filocations/ .