Swindon to become UK's first wifi town

At the end of 2009, a launch event was held in Highworth to mark the beginning of a process that will make Swindon the UK’s first wifi town.
 
The wireless mesh network, which initially covers Highworth, will by April provide blanket internet coverage to all 186,000 citizens within the Swindon borough boundary through a network of 1,400 wireless access nodes fixed on lampposts.

The £1m project is a partnership between Swindon Borough Council and two private companies, Avidity and Aqovia, each of which owns a third of Digital City UK, the company which was set up to run the project. Digital City hopes to recoup the investment by selling upgraded connections and services to businesses and heavy internet users.

While residents will get two hours of free access each day, heavy users will be invited to pay about £7.99 a month for unlimited access at 20 megabits per second. That would be significantly faster than the UK’s average broadband speed of 2.8mbps. Users can also sign up for services such as monitoring home energy use, security via CCTV cameras linked to the network and medical services on the internet.

Swindon Borough Council will also be using the network for connecting staff, becoming one of the anchor customers for the project.