Hybrid provider Eduze wants to get content on smartphones at high footfall locations

Eduze co-founder Charlie Beuthin wants to provide free, local offline content for smartphone users using Wi-Fi boxes in high footfall locations. The content (some of which will be in local languages) will be free at the point of use, supported by advertising and sponsorship. Russell Southwood talked to Charlie Beuthin about the content, the technology and the business model.

Eduze's business idea is aimed at overcoming the current shortcomings in the mobile operators data networks. (Eduze means nearby in Zulu.) These are either too slow or congested to make extensive video streaming or downloading a reality or the data charges (particularly on slow speeds) make it too expensive for users.

The Wi-Fi box they are using has been designed by a group of Finnish engineers and it can be powered by solar panels. The box holds a library of content that smartphone users in the hotspot it creates can download for free. The boxes can be meshed together and also there is a server version for larger locations, one of which is being trialed in the Jabulani Mall.

It is provided in a rugged case, has an ALIX board and is known as CLOX (Cloud in a Box). The box uses unlicensed spectrum and has a range of 75 metres, depending on the phone. The prototype box cost US$280 but this falls to US$100 over 10 units and US$30 over 500 units. It can both stream and offer downloads and will support 20 people per box doing this.

The idea is that the potential users will pass through high footfall locations like shopping malls, transport hubs and taxi ranks and access the Wi-Fi enabled library, downloading items they like locally in the hot-spot before they get on to the bus or into a taxi. The idea is that there would be scratch cards available to remind people. It claims that you would able to download an entire film in 1.5 minutes. The interface has been designed for those who are digitally illiterate and is clean and seems simple to use.

The content will be entirely free, supported by advertising and sponsorship, with an advertising layer that all users will see like TV ads at regular intervals in the content. The library content will be updated remotely on a regular basis. The ads can be localized, offering local traders opportunities to address the passing audiences. It has also implemented a fremium model for music whereby you get to listen to a song twice for free but pay the third time.

The product is currently being trialed as part of the free Wi-Fi hot-spot eMbizo in Tembisa in South Africa. A trial is also starting with the Translux inter-city bus company. Also It will be available at the Maftown Heights music Festival in Johannesburg at the end of December. Those attending will get free downloads of the performers and a database of performers: We can easily create a walled garden for a sponsor wanting to offer free content.

In terms of content rights, Eduze is speaking to a couple of African content providers who have libraries of available content. It is also working with Bozza, providing content from its platform during the trial.

Beuthin says it has four investors interested and that it is looking to raise US$0.5 million over the next 6 months.

Eduze's business model is pegged to getting advertisers and sponsors so it will have to demonstrate quickly to big brand name advertisers and their agencies that it can attract customers in the hundreds of thousands and millions for the dream to come true.

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