Costa Rica's free public WiFi is overhauled with Alepo's cloud monetization solution

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Feb. 11, 2021 - PRLog -- Costa Rica's PC Central has revamped their public WiFi offering using Alepo's cloud WiFi SMP. Alepo's platform enables the consortium, led by PC Central, to grant free internet access in exchange for completing a survey and uses an advanced reporting module to capture key user data.

PC Central and the consortium were assigned the contract for the deployment by the National Telecommunications Fund, Fonatel, as part of telecommunications regulator Sutel's Zii WiFi initiative to provide connectivity to 515 digital zones, including parks, train stations, universities, and other public facilities. The initiative helps bridge the digital gap and provide internet access to urban as well as rural areas where broadband connectivity is low. As part of the initiative, the consortium deployed 70,000 meters of fiber optic cable, primarily in the cities of San José, Cartago, and Limón.

PC Central looked to Alepo after originally launching the WiFi network with another solution that could not meet the demands of the large user base and custom reports required by Sutel. Alepo was able to rapidly set up and migrate the traffic to its new cloud-based platform. Having gone live in October, the service is already making a significant impact, with over 25,000 new users signing on in the first week.

Casual users can access the service by filling in a survey through Alepo's captive portal that asks for their age and work profile. On successful completion, they are granted four hours of free WiFi access. The captive portal redirects them to the Zii WiFi website, which provides educational content for all age groups, along with useful how-tos regarding government procedures that can be completed digitally. Users can also check their email, download apps, enjoy books, music, and videos. Returning customers are directly routed to the Zii WiFi site instead of the survey page.

Adriana Ramos, Project Head, PC Central, said, "We believe that communication is a public necessity, and we are committed to helping Sutel achieve its objective of making connectivity easily accessible to all. Alepo was our vendor of choice given its vast experience in deploying advanced cloud-based WiFi monetization in the region, and it has helped bolster the capabilities of our service. We are pleased with the response we have received from users so far and are confident that the reporting and analytics capabilities of Alepo's platform will enable us to continue improving our offerings."

Juan Espinosa, Director LATAM, Alepo, said, "We are proud to partner with PC Central to help improve internet access across Costa Rica. Alepo's WiFi Service Management Platform (https://www.alepo.com/products-services/wifi-service-mana...) has replaced the legacy system to enable more advanced free journeys, with an improved data-gathering and analytics platform to generate custom reports requested by the service provider. We are confident that the newly revamped service will continue to gain popularity."