Until yesterday Swindon was stuck squarely between Bristol and Reading on the M4 corridor in Wiltshire. Now it has moved one step closer to Silicon Valley with plans to become Britain’s first wi-fi town, and free internet access for its 186,000-strong population.

No one within the borough boundary will be out of range of a wireless connection after April next year, when 1,400 access points will be placed on street lamps to form the “Swindon mesh”. The aim, according to the leader of the borough council, which is backing the project, is for the region to show the way for the rest of England.

The project is a partnership between the borough council and two private companies, both of which hope to recoup their investment by offering paid-for upgrades to businesses and heavy users.

However, every Swindon resident will receive free wireless access for a limited period each day.

The town, which is home to a number of high-tech businesses, already has the country’s highest broadband usage. Even so, the average broadband speed is 2.8MB; far slower than the 20MB connections promised by the consortium.

Rod Bluh, leader of Swindon Borough Council, said: “This is the future of England. The idea is that everyone will have time-limited access and then they will be able to buy extra. It hasn’t yet been decided whether it will be two or three hours a day but it will be at the same speed as the paid-for access.”

Customers will be able to use the wif-fi mesh to receive premium services such as CCTV monitoring or to check their electricity usage.

The project is expected to cost £1 million and is jointly funded by the council and Avidity and aQovia, which each own a one-third share. Together they have formed the company Digital City UK. The private companies will recoup their investment by charging subscriptions for extended access and broadband packages.

Attempts to set up similar schemes in the US have foundered because of the cost of infrastructure, but Mr Bluh said: “This is tried and tested technology. Although it is the first in Britain, there are 90 other cities worldwide where this has been done.

“We are funding this in the form of loans, and even if the companies were to fail we would be covered, because we will own the hardware.”

The service will also be available to visitors to the town, who will pay a one-off fee for access. Installation will begin in the Highworth area in early December and the whole town should be covered by the end of April 2010.

Rikki Hunt, of Avidity, said: “I have a view that the reason this hasn’t been done before is that no one has thought of putting together the public and private model. We both have different skills to bring to the table. We bring the commerciality and the public sectors bring the knowledge of the community. We have built up a trust between us.”

Although Swindon will be the first to cover a whole community, many town and city centres in Britain already have free wi-fi — but it’s not always welcome. In Glastonbury, Somerset, there have been complaints from some residents that it is causing people to suffer headaches.

However, Mustafa Arif, director of aQovia, which is providing the technology for the project, said that scientific studies have shown that the weak signal from wi-fi routers poses no health risks.

Swindon residents were enthusiastic yesterday about the plan for free wi-fi but are waiting to see how it will work in practice. Amy Morris, 24, who works as a purchaser for a high street store, said: “It’s great we are taking the lead. We will have to wait and see how fast it is, but even if it is slow you can’t complain, because it’s free.” James Richards, 33, said: “This could have benefits for a lot of people, because it’s a cost saving, but it all depends on the access. My main worry is that it might be too slow to be useful and it will be interesting to see good the service is.

“I will believe it’s completely free when I see it, but this is certainly a good thing for Swindon.” (Via Original Source)