Free wifi for all

More and more there is press coverage about cities providing free wifi access to their citizens. Granted, most are in the US – San Francisco (Google) and Philadelphia (Earthlink) being the most prominent, but slowly free wifi is creeping over to Europe.

Visiting coffee houses and fast food restaurants has, for some time been a way to get online on the move. However, paying upto £5 an hour to access the internet really grates. And even then if you move from one establishment to another, chances are they’ll be served by different providers – T-mobile, The Cloud etc – which means you will have to pay again and again and again.

With the technology to provide wifi access cheaply available, it is outrageous that companies can charge such exorbitant fees just for the privaledge of internet access on the move. If we are to progress access to the internet outside our homes and offices something must be done.

Norwich is the first city in the UK to take this one step further and provide free wifi access to all their citizens within a 4km radius of City Hall, via its Openlink programme. This ia great idea that will be replicated across many town centres across the UK in the coming years. It has already started in Bristol with a limited trial.

While this is a great service, it has been restricted by commercial interests. Access speeds are limited to 256kbps compared to the usual 2mbps home broadband speed. As these programmes become more common, I would expect the speed to increase.
The next generation of digital marketing will be location based. Technologies such as Bluetooth have been used to target bus users at covered bus stops, but the limited range (10m) hampers its usefulness. With wifi available at a local level in town centres, imagine the possibilities of local businesses targetting local customers and prospects. While we have not yet developed services to take advantage of this technology, imagine a restaurant filling empty space by targetting passers by, or a cinema advertising to people spending time in a cafe. Interesting ideas. Sure, the technology must lead but as marketers, it’s vital to prepare for the new possibilities that free, ubiquitous wifi access could offer.

Useful link: Five’s Gadget Show is currently running a campaign for free wifi access in towns and cities.

Posted on Monday, November 13th, 2006 at 10:12 pm