Newcastle and Gateshead Rollout FREE BT WiFi After GOWEX Flop

The plan to deploy a new network of free public WiFi hotspots across Newcastle and Gateshead in north east England, which last year took a hit after the project’s original partner (Spain’s GOWEX) collapsed due to falsified accounts (here), looks set to continue after the local authorities signed a deal with BT instead.

Luckily GOWEX’s spectacular failure occurred shortly after the initial agreement had been reach and, in addition, the contract did not rely on any financial investment from either council. The result meant that the local authorities merely needed to hunt for a new supplier, which has of course delayed their deployment.

The solution, it seems, was to sign a new deal with BT under the wider Go Digital Newcastle “super-fast broadband” initiative. BT will now deploy the new network of public WiFi hotspots at key locations on both sides of the river, free of charge.

Farooq Hakim, BT’s regional director for the North East, said:

“We are really proud to have been chosen by Newcastle and Gateshead to deliver free to use BT Wi-fi in the town and city centres. We’re already working with a number of other cities like Glasgow and Cardiff and the networks we have built for them have proven really popular with businesses and shoppers.

We hope free wi-fi goes down just as well in Newcastle and Gateshead. The agreement will also see BT and the cities working together to help mobile operators give Newcastle and Gateshead great coverage.”

Sadly the announcement contained no specifics about the roll-out plan or timescale.