This study focuses on teenage users of public internet access venues
(PAVs) in low-income neighborhoods of Cape Town. It documents their cultivation
of detailed ICT repertoires to make the most of available ICTs. It highlights
the continuing importance of PAVs as supplements for poorly equipped
schools and reveals the incompleteness of any supposed transition to mobileonly
internet use. While the mobile internet is opening up opportunities for
young people, its current form still conflicts with the easy (global) rhetoric of a
closing digital divide and the end of the PAV. We recommend policy and design
actions (effecting rules, training, messaging, functionality, and Wi-Fi) to
reconfigure PAVs to be more useful "in the age of the mobile internet". Though
some actions require support from policymakers, this is fruitful ground for designers
and technologists. We identify steps that can be undertaken immediately,
rather than waiting for future device convergence or lower tariffs.