The first area is the long-haul segment, facilitated by the 60-seater luxury coach manufacturer Irizar, especially with cross-border operators running to and through Zimbabwe. WiFiontheMove now oversees three operators: Swiss Express, Sebata, and most recently, Mzansi Express, operating from Johannesburg to Bulawayo. Two more operators are set to join before June, underscoring the competition and traffic volume on this route.

Furthermore, Farnell Wireless has become an approved supplier to Busmark. In partnership with UD Trucks, they have begun installing WiFi on their new 34-seater Croner Commuter and Rural Bus.

The Coach and Bus WIFI Solution

At the heart of the solution are the Teltonika Industrial RUT956 Cellular Router and the POYNTING PUCK-5 high-gain 2×2 Mimo WiFi & LTE & GPS antenna. Aside from its ruggedized, low-profile design and ease of installation, the PUCK delivers a stable, high-throughput LTE signal from Vodacom towers along the main motorway routes across Southern Africa.

CEO Justin Farnell elaborates, “Providing coach operators with a cloud-managed solution that integrates top-notch hardware, software, and mobile data connectivity has set a new standard for long-haul passenger road connectivity. WiFi is no longer seen as an optional extra by coach operators but rather as a core component of their passenger service offering.”

Mr Farnell stresses that he is pleased with the development of the longstanding relationship with IntetoConnect and anticipates significant expansion in the Metro segment. Municipalities and Universities invest in upgrading their bus fleets to offer WiFi to daily commuters.

Fixed Wireless Hotspots for transport hubs

With over 80% of Africans relying on public transport, they plan to begin deploying high-capacity fixed wireless hotspots using the E-Poynt at key transport hubs across Southern Africa.

Inteto Connect is proud to supply the Teltonika Routers and POYNTING antennas used in these solutions.

Contact Details:

• Integrated WiFi solution for your bus or coach: [email protected]
• POYNTING Antennas and Teltonika Routers: [email protected]

SOURCE: Intetoconnect

WiFiontheMove has experienced a significant surge in several key markets since the end of the COVID-19 lockdowns. One such area is the long-haul segment, facilitated by the 60-seater luxury coach manufacturer Irizar.

Its busiest market is the cross-border route from South Africa to Zimbabwe. WiFiontheMove now manages four operators on this route: Swiss Express, Mzansi Express, and latterly, Imperial Lane and Nitol Transport, operating from Johannesburg to Bulawayo and Harare.

For the majority of the African diaspora living and working in South Africa, the only affordable long-distance mode of transport is the coach, and offering onboard WiFi connectivity on the move has gone from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a ‘must-have,’ placing additional pressures on transport providers, as well as the opportunity to differentiate between operators.

A cloud-managed high availability solution

To ensure the coaches stay online, WiFiontheMove constantly monitors the router, coach location, passenger WiFi connectivity and manages the Vodacom mobile data within South Africa. The need has now arisen to start offering WiFiontheMove on both sides of the border on the same trip.

At the heart of the WiFiontheMove solution for Southern Africa’s coaches are the Teltonika Industrial RUT956 Cellular Router and the Poynting PUCK-5 high-gain 2×2 Mimo WiFi & LTE & GPS antenna – proudly provided by Inteto Connect. The router is ignition controlled and mounted discreetly in a secure compartment by the driver to avoid tampering and theft. Installation by qualified Irizar engineers takes around 30 minutes, which is important given coach operators are running on the clock.

Likewise, the ruggedized PUCK-5 antenna low-profile design delivers a stable, high-throughput LTE signal from Vodacom towers along the main motorways across South Africa. Network dropouts do occur, however, so the plan is to ‘heat map’ the main routes and supplement the primary Vodacom SIM to failover to a second MTN SIM. Network availability rather than speed is a more important consideration than speed for WiFiontheMove. That said, the 4G Teltonika router delivers download speeds of 30+Mbps and supports up to 100 concurrent users.

On a busy 60-seater coach, peak passenger usage is well over 50% so there has to be a tradeoff between speed, data consumption and the cost. WiFiontheMove caps the free daily data per passenger allowance at around 250-300MB. This is subsidized by the coach operator that pays WiFiontheMove a fixed fee for guaranteeing this minimum data rate. In quieter months, or for charters and corporate clients, the data cap can be set much higher or even taken off completely. The model is flexible.

Cross border connectivity

The first customer to go live with cross border WiFi on the same trip is the United Bus Company of Zambia (UBZ). They are the market leader in luxury long haul travel in Zambia, with a fleet of over 20 Irizar coaches.

In December UBZ opened a new depot and passenger ticket office and waiting lounge in Johannesburg. WiFiontheMove has now configured the Teltonika routers on this new cross-country route to ‘SIM switch’ between Vodacom SA and MTN Zambia. The parameters are set to ‘no network’ and ‘roaming’ in order to dynamically affect the network interoperability.

“The ruggedized PUCK-5 antenna low-profile design delivers a stable, consideration for LTE signal from Vodacom towers along the main motorways across South Africa.”

“For passengers travelling across borders on our buses, the WiFi ensures a fast, reliable and uninterrupted connection, making their journey more enjoyable and productive. Whether it’s working remotely, streaming content, or staying in touch with loved ones, the service delivers top notch performance,” notes Managing Director of UBZ Southern Africa, Cassytha Lawrence. “The WiFi allows us to track our buses in real time, helping us monitor routes, manage schedules, and ensure a smooth, efficient service. This technology also streamlines the checkout process at our depots, improving both efficiency and customer experience.”
“Providing coach operators with a cloud-managed WiFi solution that integrates industry leading hardware, software, and mobile data connectivity has set a new standard for long-haul passenger road connectivity,” said Justin Farnell, CEO of WiFiontheMove. “WiFi is no longer seen as an optional extra by coach operators, but rather as a core component of their passenger service offering.” 

SOURCE: African Wireless Comms

Irizar Southern Africa houses a production operation where coach bodies fully built and imported from Irizar Brazil are mated to locally assembled chassis supplied by major European brands. Irizar works with Farnell Wireless to provide customized Wi-Fi solutions for their customers of which Badela Transport is one.

Commuters or travellers making use of public transport expect to be connected to the internet during every part of their journey, whether in urban or rural areas. The lack of cellular coverage by mobile operators has so far hampered internet reception on the bus routes.  Badela Transport take passengers between Cape Town and Umtata and wanted to supply internet for the customers on this route.

The Solution                    

Irizar SA wanted to offer a complete solution including local technical support to them and their end customers. They decided on Farnell Wireless’ Wi-Fionthemove (www.wifionthemove.co.za) solution. With this solution, the Irizar i6s models are now fitted with pre-configured hardware for a secure connection to the internet. Additionally, the coach operator gets a customized log-in page with their logo and any associated parameters such as access time, and portal advertising. On the hardware side, the solution consists of a Teltonika 955 Industrial Cellular Router and a Poynting PUCK antenna. The PUCK-5 is a 5-IN-1 antenna that includes 2X2 LTE Antennas, 2X2 Wi-Fi Antennas, and a GPS/GLONASS Antenna. This combination ensures access to the mobile networks in areas that were not accessible before.

The Result

The Wi-Fi uptake by the passengers has been great and feedback from the customer has been very positive. The customer gets analytics and feedback through the Linkyfi platform. The location of the coach and the performance of the router and antenna are monitored through their RMS remote management system.

Due to the positive feedback, Irizar SA now includes the router and PUCK as a value-add sales feature to the coach operator.

“Farnell Wireless has been supplying managed Wi-Fi onboard Irizar’s luxury i6s coaches for over 2 years.  Most of their customers are operating over the border and out of the metros, where LTE signal coverage is poor, so the Poynting PUK-5 antenna was fitted to the Teltonika router, to optimise the quality of the LTE, Wi-Fi, and GPS connection. The results have been outstanding.”

–Justin Farnell – WIFiontheMove.

SOURCE: Intetoconnect