The rise of online media services such as streaming TV and digital music platforms have created a massive increase in Internet data usage. In South Africa, mobile is the Internet access medium of choice for about 90% of the country’s 26 million Internet users due to its low infrastructure setup costs and high penetration rates.

The drawbacks of mobile Internet are that it is slower and more expensive than wired broadband alternatives such as fibre-optic cable. In South Africa, with its massive inequality and some of the highest data rates in the world, the present situation is responsible for a widening digital divide.

DataSave is a service created in response to this challenge. It enables consumers to easily download large media files from the Internet during off-peak hours when charges are at their lowest. In doing so it bridges this digital divide.