South Africa’s internet access levels could be a lot better than they are. The two main problems are still cost and the “last mile”, that massive installed base of cables connecting local exchanges to you. When Henk Kleynhans was a student at UCT, he bumped up against both of these obstacles.

“I desperately wanted ADSL but couldn’t afford it at R1 200 per month since I was a broke third year student,” he recalls. “So I thought I could share it with others in digs.”