The London Borough of Islington has just introduced free Wi-Fi service along the one-mile (2.2 km) stretch of Upper Street. The Islington Borough Council decided to deploy the network so that anyone with a Wi-Fi enabled device can access the Internet for free. In addition, the Council is providing a number of local businesses, such as cafes, with PCs soThe London Borough of Islington has just introduced free Wi-Fi service along the one-mile (2.2 km) stretch of Upper Street. The Islington Borough Council decided to deploy the network so that anyone with a Wi-Fi enabled device can access the Internet for free. In addition, the Council is providing a number of local businesses, such as cafes, with PCs so they can offer customers who do not have a computer free Internet service.
The Technology Mile network is accessed through an Islington Council landing page, which features a comprehensive menu of council services, information and communication options, plus direct access to the World Wide Web, all free of charge.
The network uses equipment from BelAir: seven BelAir200 Wireless Multi-service Switch Routers and one BelAir100 Wireless Multi-service Node.
Cityspace is the borough’s main partner in the project. Cityspace has deployed other networks in the UK, for example, in Bristol and in Portsmouth, both in the UK. They also did a project in Brussels, Belgium.
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Cityspace was awarded “Best Enterprise Deployment for Public Sector” for the Bristol Hotzone at the Wireless LAN awards on 20 April 2005. Tina Speake, Design/Projects Officer, City Centre Projects at Bristol City Council received the award jointly with Marc Meyohas, CEO of Cityspace.
To find out more about BelAir Networks, go to BelAir’s Company Profile Page on Muniwireless: http://www.muniwireless.com/reports/belair.html.
[…] Islington (a borough in London, UK) has extended its Wi-Fi hotzone with free Internet access to cover 4km from the Angel along Upper Street and Holloway Road to the Odeon cinema. This structure creates ‚Äòcanyons of coverage‚Äô where wireless transmitters are located on lampposts below the height of the buildings on either side of the street. Islington is working with Cityspace to deploy Wi-Fi in the borough (see my earlier article on the Islington Wi-Fi project). […]