Swindon to be UK's First Wifi Town
Swindon, Wiltshire: population 160,000. Claim to fame: first town in Britain to provide free wifi internet access to its residents.
Swindon Borough Council has partnered with digital technology firm aQovia to install a wifi across the town. The first stage will go live next month and the project will be complete in April 2010.
Anyone with a wifi device will have free access to the internet and email, but it won't be unlimited. A subscription option for 20Mb access will be available at "significantly less per month" than the major broadband suppliers.
Free voice-calls and remote medical consultations are already being considered as possible extensions of the service.
Rod Bluh, leader of Swindon Borough Council, describes the initiative and partnership as "truly groundbreaking." It's certainly a highlight in the otherwise flat landscape of municipal investment in technology for the people.
The wifi network will also be a temporary boost to Swindon's rather prosaic reputation in the UK. A town built by the nineteenth-century railway industry, it's regarded by many as lacking distinctive character.
The unveiling of the free public wifi next April will briefly raise its profile before other metropolitan areas decide to follow its trailblazing example.
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