It has been revealed that Swindon is to become Britain’s first fully Wi-Fi town, with every resident having access to the internet. Named the “Swindon mesh”, 1,400 points will be placed on lamp posts so that all of the 186,000 residents can log on to the internet, even if they’re standing in the street with their laptop.
A joint venture between two private firms, aQovia and Avidity, and the town’s borough council, it is hoped that the project will lead the way for other towns and cities across the country. With the hope that individual account holder upgrades will fund and sustain the project, all users will have access for a specific period. Meanwhile users who use large amounts of bandwidth or private companies will be asked to pay additional fees. Swindon Borough Council’s Rod Bluh explained “This is the future of England. The idea is that everyone will have time-limited access and then they will be able to buy extra. It hasn’t yet been decided whether it will be two or three hours a day but it will be at the same speed as the paid-for access.” He added that “This is tried and tested technology. Although it is the first in Britain, there are 90 other cities worldwide where this has been done. We are funding this in the form of loans, and even if the companies were to fail we would be covered, because we will own the hardware.”
Meanwhile Avidity’s Rikki Hunt said “I have a view that the reason this hasn’t been done before is that no one has thought of putting together the public and private model. We both have different skills to bring to the table. We bring the commerciality and the public sectors bring the knowledge of the community. We have built up a trust between us.”
