21 July 2009, Skyrove Wi-Fi Hotspots today announced an investment deal with Cybersmart.

Cybersmart, a leading ISP in SA, has shown its commitment in further developing Skyrove’s Wi-Fi Hotspot business by taking a minority stake in the business, valuing the company at R12 million.

Cybersmart’s research showed that running a hotspot business is technically quite challenging and that the cost of an investment in an established player would be significantly less than the cost required to develop a robust service in-house.

“After evaluating a number of hotspot offerings available, it was decided to pursue an investment in Skyrove as the company is currently Africa’s largest and fastest growing Wi-Fi sharing community network; the simple voucher system allows a user to redeem vouchers at any Skyrove hotspot and the credits never expire; the transparent management system is far superior than any of its competitors and the management team is a combination of highly skilled, young & innovative individuals, which really made it a ‘no brainer’”, says Fialkov.

Henk Kleynhans, Founder and CTO of Skyrove, welcomes the partnership. “Laurie has a very strong entrepreneurial background and is active in the ICT space. He understood Skyrove’s product and could clearly see the potential for growth.”

About Cybersmart

Founded in 1998, Cybersmart is the most economical ISP in South Africa that provides broadband internet access and the cheapest hosting solutions. With various innovative customer centric special offers such as Night Rider and the latest Grow for Life, Cybersmart is continually rewarding their loyal customers while still providing best value bundled packages.

For more information, please visit Cybersmart.

About Skyrove

Skyrove enables anyone to easily start a Wi-Fi Hotspot and share their broadband internet connection to earn an income, while at the same time providing inexpensive, prepaid wireless internet access to end-users. Once you connect your Skyrove router to your network (ADSL, iburst etc), anyone with a laptop computer will see a new network called ‘Skyrove Internet’. They simply connect to this, buy credits online and start to surf the net. To have your very own managed or controlled free Skyrove Hotspot solution, please fill in the enquiry form and we will contact you. To find 500+ other Skyrove hotspots, please visit Skyrove’s hotspot map.

For more information, please visit Skyrove.

Leading Cape Town based hotel group Daddy Long Legs has acquired Skyrove’s hassle free and fully supported Wi-Fi solution for its latest expansion, the Grand Daddy Hotel. Situated in Long Street, the Group’s venues comprise of The Art Hotel, Self Catering Apartments, The Grand Daddy and finally 7 vintage Airstreams on the roof of the Grand Daddy Hotel – each of these boasting its own contemporary, unconventional design.

Guests can now stay at any of the Daddy Long Legs hotels and enjoy Skyrove’s Wi-Fi Internet access. At the Grand Daddy all guests will receive a 20 Megabytes venue branded voucher upon check-in. Guests can buy additional vouchers or top up using their credit cards. Skyrove’s limited free hotspot option has already been widely adapted in the hospitality industry as it gives the venue full control over the free amount that they give away, is secure and protects the venue from abuse and is an opportunity to increase customer loyalty by handing guests a free branded voucher.

Sergio Dreyer, GM of Grand Daddy says: “It is a pleasure forming another partnership with South Africa’s leading Wi-Fi hotspot provider. We are thrilled to have found a partner for our group that has delivered such an outstanding level of service. The way Skyrove’s controlled free Internet solution works is the best possible solution for our new 4-star hotel.”

Join Africa’s largest and fastest growing Wi-Fi sharing network and get your own prepaid or limited free Wi-Fi Hotspot solution from Skyrove. Simply fill in the enquiry form for a managed solution and we will call you.

Find the Grand Daddy Hotel and 500+ other Skyrove hotspots on our hotspot map.

Skyrove launched its new Authorised Partner Training Programme on 20 April 2009 held at the Grand Daddy Hotel. The event was attracted interested SMME’s from across the country to participate in Sales, Marketing and Technical training followed by much welcomed FAQ’s.

Skyrove’s new Mesh technology was also introduced by Skyrove founder and Chief Technical Officer, Henk Kleynhans. The mesh routers make it simple to set up larger, multi-building, wireless networks due to its self-forming and self-healing ability. Skyrove is currently the only company in Africa that provides this innovative technology to venue owners and its partners.

Renier De Jager from Leapfrog Computers in Gauteng says: “This is truly a step forward for providing cheap internet access all over Africa combined with the opportunity to make money from it. Excellent technology combined with great management Team = Success.”

Do you also want to extend your business and earn income from installing and managing multiple WiFi hotspots? Then join our growing team of more than 60 Authorized Skyrove Partners. Click here to apply for your partner status online and to find out about all the benefits you will enjoy as an Authorized Skyrove Partner.

We brought back the Status Window (pictured below) in October last year, and the one major complaint we had was that it would pop up to the foreground whenever it refreshed if you use Internet Explorer! So rather than asking everybody to switch to an Open-Source browser such as Firefox or Opera, we decided to stop automatically refreshing the status window altogether. The status window also would take up some processing power and use a little bit of data every time it refreshed. The drawback is that in future you will have to click the ‘Refresh Stats’ button in order to see the latest usage statistics. Please let us know what you think and if there is any way in which we can improve it further! UPDATE: Due to your feedback, we’ve decided to make a small change. In future, the Status Window will refresh the moment you click on it!

Skyrove is happy to announce that we have reached 500 Wi-Fi Hotspots and 20 000 registered users in December. “Building relationships with organisations such as Spur, Digital Planet and RSAWEB – to name a few, has taken Skyrove from strength to strength making it Africa’s largest and fastest growing Wi-Fi sharing community. It is a very exciting time in our business as 2009 brings with it new and exciting opportunities,” says Tino Mueller, CEO of Skyrove. Skyrove enables anyone to easily start a Wi-Fi Hotspot and share their broadband internet connection to earn an income, while at the same time providing ubiquitous, inexpensive, prepaid wireless internet access to end-users. Once you plug your Skyrove router into your network (ADSL, iBurst etc), a Skyrove user with a Wi-Fi device will see a new network called ‘Skyrove Internet’. They simply connect to this, buy credits online and start to surf the net. Take advantage of online shopping, simply visit the Skyrove Shop To find Skyrove Hotspots in South Africa and worldwide visit map.skyrove.com For more information on Skyrove click here

RSAWEB, a leading provider of Internet Services to Corporates, SMMEs and home-user customers, has recently integrated their Wi-Fi hotspot offering with Skyrove. With branches in Cape Town and Johannesburg, RSAWEB offers customers free technical and marketing support (including a marketing pack to help you promote the Skyrove Wi-Fi service), plus first line customer support, without any subscription fees! Each Wi-Fi router retails for R795 and venue owners are paid 50% revenue share at the end of the month. RSAWEB’s Wi-Fi Hotspot instantly turns your location into a Skyrove enabled Wi-Fi Internet Zone that can effortlessly generate passive income for yourself or your business. This means that RSAWEB’s hotspot users have access to over 500 Skyrove Wi-Fi hotspots in South Africa. For more information on RSAWEB and its Wi-Fi offer please click here To find Skyrove Hotspots close to you and worldwide visit: map.skyrove.com