My experience using the Econet kombi wi-fi…

So the first time I heard about kombi wifi, I thought it was somewhat useless. I mean considering the distance between town to some of our hoods, you wouldn’t have done much with it at all. Besides, the last I checked, some routes only had one of such Kombis, so you can do the math and see the probability of getting to ride on one.

For the benefit of those who have never used it, it’s simply the same concept you use on all the other Econet wifi zones. Well, if you’ve never used those either then I might as well let you in on the whole process. Maybe refering to it as the whole process makes it sound like some long cumbersome process but it’s actually not, at all – you might just have a few glitches when trying to generate a password like I did but those are just minor.

Firstly, you need to turn on your wifi (obviously) then select and connect to the Econet wi-fi zone network. Make sure to select that one specifically because there’s also the Econet wi-fi zone secure available so you might end up wasting time trying to connect to it. Remember; it’s in a kombi, so time is of essence lest you drop off without even using the wifi or worse off, getting there before the download completes – boy am I glad that I didn’t have to go through that.

After connecting to the Econet wi-fi zone (by selecting connect), you will be redirected to the Econet wifi login page. There you will have to enter your phone number and select ‘get password’, and within a few seconds you will receive your one-time 4 digit pin via SMS. You then have to enter the pin on the same login page which you used to request it – it’s fairly an easy and straightforward process. And yes the wifi is fast enough, and by fast enough I mean enough to play a YouTube video without buffering or downloading a 14mb application within less than a minute. But then again, I don’t know how many people were logged onto it at the time so it’s hard to establish this as a fact though of course what are the chances of having more than 8 passengers using it at one go??

When I started the article I mentioned how I initially thought that the kombi wifi initiative was useless (to the ordinary citizen that is, certainly not for Econet) but then I changed my mind as I was using it. I figured how we had always bought the Econet data (which come with wifi bundles), whether we got to use them or not, it never really bothered us or rather let me speak for myself. I only cared for the bundles I could use without needing to be in a particular area and all. Apart from that, when in town I never really got the chance to be making stops for wifi. What it then means for me (and other people like me), we never got all value for our money. But now, we can. We initially were okay with that status quo which somehow entails that even if Econet had not provided another means for us to make use of those wifi bundles we’d still be ‘content’.

I concur to the fact that there’s still a few kombis with wifi out there for now, because the project is still ongoing. Pretty soon, you’ll get to make use of those bundles on your way home from work while you relax; or even on your way to work, you can do a quick search or even read your emails before actually getting to work. Even better if you live in Cowdrey park (Bulawayo) because you can literally download, use and uninstall quite a number of Apps on just one trip from town – though you just need to be careful not to miss your bus stop while you’re at it like I almost did.