Tenants in multi-storey council blocks in North Solihull will be given free or subsidised internet access through electric power sockets.

The broadband service will be sent to housing blocks wirelessly to rooftop wireless radio receivers and power lines will distribute it to the individual homes.

The project is being run by Solihull Community Housing (SCH), Solihull Metropiltan Council's management organisation, and networking group CI-Net. And the service will create a wireless hotspot for the council to promote the area to local businesses.

The council favoured the wireless method of delivery over the use of traditional broadband cables, said Chris Deery Head of IT at SCH.

“Running cable to individual buildings could have worked out more costly and problematic because it required digging up the road. CI-Net's RedKite service allows a faster deployment across the sites, greater flexibility and actively reduces the need for civil engineering,” he said.

“We were a little worried about the routers – which would have been placed in stairwells or corridors – being at risk of damage or theft. We could have boxed them in for protection but that would have weakened the signal."

"The connectors that CI-Net is providing will be used within the safety of individual flats. And because they have a unique IP address identifying each user individually, there’s little chance they’ll be stolen as they have no resale value.”