ISP KC Rolls Out FREE High Speed WiFi Hotspots in Hull City Centre

Residents, visitors and businesses in the centre of Hull in East Yorkshire (England) can now access a new network of free “high-speed” wireless internet (WiFi) hotspots after local telecoms operator, KC, began installing access points on the city’s aging public phone boxes.

The initial deployment began last month and has already covered the area bounded by Ferensway, Freetown Way, Castle Street and the River Hull. As with most hotspots your first 30 minutes of use are offered completely free and this resets at the end of each day (i.e. you can use it again the following day).

Gary Young, KC’s Business and Consumer Director, said:

“The growing use of smartphones and tablets means more people want access to the internet while they’re on the move, and the Wi-Fi we installed at St Stephen’s last year has been extremely popular.

In the same way as our Lightstream fibre broadband service is giving local people the best-connected homes and businesses in the UK, our installation of Wi-Fi is intended to create a more connected city beyond the home and the workplace. It’s a significant investment, in a service that we know our customers and other people using the city centre will find useful.

Where we can, we’re using our phone boxes as Wi-Fi access points. They’re an important part of our heritage, and it’s great that we can make them more relevant to modern life.”

KC now plans to continue the roll-out of Wi-Fi in a number of other “key locations” across Hull and after that it will be extended into other parts of East Yorkshire throughout the summer. FYI – The hotspot SSID is called “kc-wifi“.