It’s a natural reaction by now for South Africans to sigh in frustration whenever the word “loadshedding” pops up on our news feed, especially if you were just about to stream your favourite Netflix series.
But three young entrepreneurs from the University of Cape Town (UCT) brought good news to the country after developing a device that keeps people connected to the internet during loadshedding or power outages.
According to News24, Brian Gadisi, Alan Gie and Thembalethu Hadebe, who are all in their 20s designed the reusable device called WiBOX and has already sold more than 5 000 units since it first launched in 2020. The device keeps modems, routers and fibre boxes on when power outages occur.
Arion Power was then established with the aim of providing affordable, uninterrupted power solutions to South African citizens and beyond, and was founded by the group of postgraduate students as part of The University of Cape Town’s “Genesis” programme.
Merely a week ago, the group announced that: “Arion Power won The Youth Owned Business category at this year’s Western Cape Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards 2021 (WCERA)!” They also thanked the Western Cape Government for the recognition and the award.
The WiBOX is connected to a wall outlet and a device. There are two leads included, one to power the router and the other to power the fibre box. When the power goes out, the box automatically switches from Eskom power to battery power without interrupting the connection. Once the power comes back on, the device will switch from battery mode to wall power mode and the WiBOX will recharge.
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Picture: Cape {town} Etc gallery / Arion Power