Commercial officer at BRCK, Christian Doyen, speaks at the AfricaCom event in Cape Town. Picture: Screengrab Commercial officer at BRCK, Christian Doyen, speaks at the AfricaCom event in Cape Town. Picture: Screengrab
CAPE TOWN - A Kenyan technology company BRCK is working with South African business partners to expand its services and explore the country’s “mature digital market”, it said on Wednesday.
“We have announced the launch and now we are looking at around Q1 (first quarter) to start seeing the first roll out of devices and throughout next year and we are currently working with partners and planning on that,” commercial officer at BRCK, Christian Doyen, said.
The Kenyan company operates at the forefront of rolling out free internet connection across the continent by using its free public WiFi platform, Moja.
“South Africa is very interesting because it’s a mixture of population that have smartphones and the data cost is higher than in Kenya and there is a willing population that wants to get on line to participate in the digital economy,” Doyen told African News Agency at the AfricaCom event in Cape Town.
"And on the other side of that, there is a very mature digital market," he said.
Commercial officer at BRCK, Christian Doyen, speaks at the AfricaCom event in Cape Town. VIDEO: Sandisiwe Ntlemeza/ African News Agency (ANA)
He said the company was very excited about coming into the South African market and looked forward to creating strong partnerships with content creators, content providers and getting people online while also participating in the digital economy.
“We really feel there is a new opportunity here to provide free connectivity to a lot of South Africans.”
In 2017, the company showed off its Moja device, which it said it was created to connect people to the internet, with a specific focus on the rural areas.
However, Doyen said the company had since moved its focus to urban areas, specifically the transport system.
“Initially, we were looking at how to connect communities that are under-served in rural areas and that don’t have access to connectivity and that is still something on our mission but now we really want to start with urban centres.”
AfricaCom touts itself as Africa’s biggest telecoms, technology conference where industry experts and leaders from across the continent gather to discuss digital connectivity.