Swindon rolls out free Wi-Fi

Scheme sees 186,000 citizens given free Wi-Fi of up to 20mb

Some 1,400 access points cover Swindon

Swindon borough council is to roll out free wireless internet access of up to 20Mbit/s to its 186,000 citizens. It claims the move is the first borough-wide scheme of this sort in the UK.

In a £1m project, dubbed the Digital City UK partnership, Swindon council teamed up with private providers Aqovia and Avidity to install a wireless WPA mesh system with 1,400 access points across the area.

The first phase of the network will go live on 7 December while other areas will see roll out by the end of April.

Users who log their computers onto the network will be provided with a key – allowing them two hours of free access. To receive continual access they will need to pay a monthly fee of approximately £5.

Swindon Borough Council leader Rod Bluh said in a statement: “Not only will residents in the borough be able to access the internet for free, the council and its partners will be able to use the technology to provide cutting-edge services to the areas or individuals who need them."

The council is looking to target both private and business customers, and visitors to Swindon will be able to register and use the system on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The Digital City UK group expects the network to be profit making, said Mustafa Arif, director of Aqovia.

“Digital City’s business model is built around subsidising free access with revenues from business and community services that are delivered over our wireless network," he said in a statement.

Swindon owns a 35 per cent share in the Digital City UK public/private partnership, which is looking to roll out similar systems elsewhere.

Swindon Council's Rikki Hunt added: “This is a fantastic opportunity for Swindon, creating total social inclusion through our free service. Swindon is delivering a Digital City that will benefit both the public and business communities.”

The council admits that there may be areas where users might not get such a strong signal and there may be some blackspots but that the upgrade will alleviate this.

In Computing last week we looked at ways in which the market might be able to reach unconnected citizens (Broadband Tax under Fire), and so render the 50p broadband tax proposed in the government’s Digital Britain report unnecessary. The Digital City UK partnership is one example of this.