Free Wi Fi plan for city centre.

Sheffield council are planning to provide free Wi Fi in the city centre they are hoping that an company will do this for free in exchange for usage of council owned assets like lampposts for advertising or singal use.

Is this really nesseary at present you can use the Internet at libraries or Internet cafes or even on Wi Fi able buses other UK cities have this already. Personally I doubt I would use it or encourage me to stay longer in the city centre.

Dont see the harm in trying if it isnt going to cost anything.

Sheffield council are planning to provide free Wi Fi in the city centre they are hoping that an company will do this for free in exchange for usage of council owned assets like lampposts for advertising or singal use.

 

Is this really nesseary at present you can use the Internet at libraries or Internet cafes or even on Wi Fi able buses other UK cities have this already. Personally I doubt I would use it or encourage me to stay longer in the city centre.

It would be great why wouldn't it be?

It would be great why wouldn't it be?

On the comments section of Star website someone posted on the lines of when someone realises how poor an section of shopsis in the city centre they will be able to they shopping on Amazon. But will any company provide this service free of charge to start with ?

On the comments section of Star website someone posted on the lines of when someone realises how poor an section of shopsis in the city centre they will be able to they shopping on Amazon.

Yes because nobody has mobile data packages on their phones currently, do they?

In my opinion it's the best idea Sheffield council has come up with this decade. Bring it on.

Yes because nobody has mobile data packages on their phones currently, do they?

Not everyone does, or if they do it might be capped. And even then the coverage might not be great.

On the comments section of Star website someone posted on the lines of when someone realises how poor an section of shopsis in the city centre they will be able to they shopping on Amazon. But will any company provide this service free of charge to start with ?

Shoppers can usually get 4G on their smartphones already for a bit of price checking, this will be more useful for people with other devices such as business people with laptops or tourists who don't have a UK phone.

I suspect Sheffield council are trying this because other cities already have a similar setup, I've been to a number of cities with free city wide Wi-Fi schemes.

Not everyone does, or if they do it might be capped. And even then the coverage might not be great.

In the centre of Sheffield it isnt going to be awful coverage

Not everyone does, or if they do it might be capped. And even then the coverage might not be great.

Maybe but I doubt to the extent that their coverage / data limit affects their shopping habits.

ie when buying a new tv

......"shall we maybe check if this is £50 cheaper on amazon?"

......"no I don't have enough credit let's just buy it from here"

Can't see it to be honest.

It's an excellent idea.

Anyone who's with BT gets free access to all the BT hotspots which cover pretty much any city centre already. Added to this are all the free hotspots in coffee shops etc and I'd suggest most of the city is already covered.

I think O2 also have a hook up with 'the cloud' wifi. Suspect EE will get access to BT wifi soon if they don't already, so that's huge proportions of the client base covered already.

However, if the council can get it done for free then why not?

Anyone who's with BT gets free access to all the BT hotspots which cover pretty much any city centre already. Added to this are all the free hotspots in coffee shops etc and I'd suggest most of the city is already covered.

 

I think O2 also have a hook up with 'the cloud' wifi. Suspect EE will get access to BT wifi soon if they don't already, so that's huge proportions of the client base covered already.

 

However, if the council can get it done for free then why not?

Exactly.

It might be a more difficult cost/benefit analysis if it was going to cost a significant sum of money but if its not why wouldn't we want to improve something.

Complete no-brainer.