Cardiff Council and BT to Deploy Free Public WiFi Across City Centre

Cardiff Council has today announced plans to roll-out an “initially” free wireless Internet (wifi) hotspot service across the city centre, which BT will build by installing access points on the areas existing lamp posts and other street furniture.

The project, which is part-funded via Cardiff’s allocation under the Super Connected Cities Project (Urban Broadband Fund), will initially go live in the heart of the city centre before later being extended to include the Cardiff Bay area in 2014.

BT is expected to manage the network for the next 10 years and will also make support for 3G and 4G services available to mobile operators on a wholesale basis. This is the same sort of approach as Virgin Media have taken in other urban locations.

Steve Haines, MD of BTWholesale’s Strategic Development, said:

“We’re extremely proud to be helping Cardiff move to the very forefront of digital connectivity. BT has a proven track record of delivering large-scale, reliable communication services, and the fact Cardiff City Council trusts us to deliver a great service for the city centre is another fantastic endorsement for our people and their expertise.”

Phase One of the deployment will connect Queen Street, The Hayes, the High Street and St Mary Street; there will also be hotspots along Gorsedd Gardens Road covering the area around City Hall. Later Phase Two will extend coverage to the Cardiff Bay area by Spring 2014.