From today, Wednesday 21 December, free Wi-Fi will be available at the Marina and Princes Dock Street, ahead of City of Culture’s opening event, ‘In with a Bang’.
Local company Connexin were appointed earlier in the year to deliver free open air Wi-Fi across the city centre, including Jameson Street, King Edward Street, Queen Victoria Square, Whitefriargate, parts of the Old Town, Queens Gardens and Paragon Interchange, with a view to extending coverage even further across the city during 2017.
Connexin will provide users with up to 50MB worth of free downloads a day, with expected speeds of between 10-15bps, which is a generous provision for browsing, but can also cope with activities such as streaming short YouTube video content.
There will also be a list of sites available online, once the download limit has expired, such as hullcc.gov.uk, hull2017.co.uk and other useful sites based around health and government services which will be free to access regardless of any other download limits.
Councillor Alan Clark, Portfolio Holder for Neighbourhoods, Communities and ICT at Hull City Council, said:
“We are delighted that we can get the first phase of the free Wi-Fi programme up and running for the ‘In with a Bang’ event, allowing thousands of people to share their experience of what is hoped to be a fantastic start to our year as the UK City of Culture 2017.
“Our priority is to ensure that both residents and visitors to Hull will get the most out of our city centre and beyond, by providing them with the right tools to access a wealth of information at the touch of a button.
“Only then will Hull become established as a forward-thinking growing hub for digital technologies, leading the way in connectivity.”
Later in 2017, free Wi-Fi will be available in areas within of all the major public parks and a number of sites in ‘digital inclusion areas,’ including North Bransholme, Orchard Park, Longhill and Preston Road with the opportunity to expand coverage even further across the city.
Director of Connexin, Furqan Alamgir, said:
“As a local company, we are delighted to be awarded this contract.
“The network we’re building in Hull supports high speed Wi-Fi roaming allowing you to walk throughout coverage areas, without a drop in your connection. The system will also remember your device so you won’t have to keep logging in, making it as easy to use as 3G/4G.
“We are working with Hull City Council to expand coverage throughout 2017.
“Connexin are focused on building world leading intelligent networks using a mix of fibre and wireless technologies to support the Internet of Things (IOT) and service the growing requirements of “smart” cities such as lighting control, mobile CCTV and traffic management.
“We are passionate about bringing this new tech in to Hull and making our home city, a ‘smart city’.”
All users will be required to register and create an account to use the free service.
This concession is due to operate for 10 years.
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