Brighton and Hove City Council Expand BT’s FREE WiFi in City Centre

The Brighton and Hove City Council in East Sussex (England), which a couple of years ago deployed free WiFi Hotspots from The Cloud (Sky) to its main public libraries, has now separately teamed up with BT to roll-out free “unlimited” WiFi at a range of locations across the city centre.

Apparently the new outdoor network will eventually consist of 40 WiFi Hotspots and 30 are already live, with the remaining 10 due to go live by the end of this Summer 2016. The aim of this is to cover the busiest areas in the city for tourism, shopping and leisure (around 11.5 million people are said to visit the city each year).

The network is expected to reach parts of Western Road, Queens Road, West Street, North Laine, London Road, St James’s Street and the seafront between Brighton Pier and the Hilton Metropole Hotel, as well as in front of Hove Town Hall on Church Road and at the top of George Street in Hove.

It’s a good deal for the council because they don’t have to spend a penny of public money, while BT benefits by gaining access to some of the city’s valuable street furniture (e.g. lamp posts) and that can also be used to install new mobile infrastructure (e.g. good for boosting local 4G connectivity, as well as distributing WiFi).

Councillor Caroline Penn said:

“BT already operates the largest wi-fi network in the UK and it is great news that even more people will be able to use the technology thanks to this collaborative project. The scheme will mean free and unlimited wi-fi for everyone when they’re out and about in the city centre within range of one of the new hubs.

This builds on other work the council is doing to encourage more people to get online, including free wi-fi in public buildings and computer courses and training sessions in our libraries.”

Erik Raphael, Director of BT Wi-fi and Devices, said:

“The project makes Brighton & Hove the first city centre in the South East to have a free BT Wi-fi network and will make a big contribution to the connectivity of the city. Knowing Brighton & Hove’s reputation as a vibrant digital hub, I’m sure the new network will prove to be very popular and extremely well used.”

The deal means that BT will both build and managed the ‘BrightonHovefreewifi‘ (SSID) network for a period of 10 years and more information can be found here: http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/bhfreewifi .