UK Cities and Towns Collect Vouchers to Install Free Public WiFi

Cities, towns and other UK districts with their own local government will today hopefully be taking part in the first call up for vouchers under the new €120m (£105m) WiFi4EU initiative, which aspires to equip “every European village and city with free WiFi internet access” by 2020.

The scheme enables eligible locations from all over Europe (currently still including the United Kingdom) to secure vouchers worth up to €15,000 (£13,000) per municipality and these can then be used to help cover the cost of installing or upgrading Wi-Fi equipment (wireless access points) in their chosen “centres of public life.”

The beneficiaries are being selected on a first-come, first-serve basis, albeit while ensuring that all EU Member States (plus Norway and Iceland) can benefit from a minimum amount of vouchers (each country will obtain a minimum of 15 and maximum of 95 vouchers). So far some 17,000 municipalities across Europe have already registered their interest and today’s first of five calls will see 1,183 of those receiving a voucher.

We should point out that, other than the one-off installation or upgrade cost, the beneficiaries must also commit to pay for the broadband ISP connectivity (internet subscription) and maintenance of the equipment to offer “free and high-quality” Wi-Fi connectivity for at least 3 years.

The funding is only being provided to networks that do not duplicate existing free private or public WiFi offers with a similar quality in the same public space. A list of eligible UK municipalities can be found online and applications can be made via the following website: http://wifi4eu.eu/#/home. It’s currently unclear whether the winning applications will be published online.

However the money will only go so far and it’s previously been stated that €120m should be enough to support equipment for free public Wi-Fi services in up to 8,000 municipalities.