Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) devices today operate in 555 megahertz of spectrum in the 5 GHz band, and are used for short range, high speed wireless connections including Wi-Fi enabled local area networks and fixed outdoor broadband transceivers used by wireless Internet service providers to connect smart phones, tablets and laptops to the broadband network.

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They all successfully bid to become super-connected cities with ultrafast fixed broadband access and large areas of public wireless connectivity.

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And several service providers, using a number of different technologies, have sprung up offering wireless alternatives to Telkom's costly fixed-line broadband service, which is expensive by European standards, let alone African ones.

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In India, where fixed-line broadband links are rare, many will get their first taste of speedy surfing over a wireless network.

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