Fancy gaining FREE public Wireless ( Wi-Fi ) Broadband Internet access at selected, but growing, locations around the UK? Well now you can, thanks to a new start-up known as Freerunner. Launching tomorrow in the North East of England, the new service promises free Wi-Fi and even hopes to bridge the digital divide in remote areas.


Community-oriented venues, such as indoor/outdoor public spaces, libraries, transport hubs, community centres and schools, will receive the service completely free of charge. In commercial venues, such as coffee shops, pubs, clubs, restaurants and sports stadia, the free access will be largely funded by the venue and its partners.


Based on open source technology, the Freerunner setup uses distributed network architecture; no data centres and therefore no single point of failure ensuring greater reliability and low operating costs.


Typically the service has to generate cash in order to operator and NorthStar Equity Investors (NSEI) has already supported its initial launch. However, in return for using the service, users may also see the odd advert or perhaps even need to buy a cup of coffee (if it’s in a cafe etc.).

The setup sounds a bit like FON's Wi-Fi sharing scheme, although FON relies upon consumers sharing out access to their broadband connections over Wi-Fi and not a central distributor. It will be interesting to see how successful the Freerunner service becomes, though for now it's only just finding its feet.