Agenda item

Presentation by John Connelly, Digital Infrastructure Manager, Nottingham City Council

John Connelly, Digital Infrastructure Manager, gave a presentation on wifi provision in the City Centre and highlighted the following points:

(a)  wifi has been introduced in the City Centre because:

·  most customers expect it will be available;

·  75% of adults in the UK own a smartphone;

·  there are 37 million users of smartphones in 2015, and this is expected to grow to 43 million users by 2017;

·  61% of the population use mobile handsets to access the internet;

(b)  the technology to enable wifi to be available is installed in street lighting columns and BT phone kiosks that have JCDecaux advertising boards attached to them;

(c)  there will be 41 access points throughout the City Centre – 21 through street lighting, and 20 through the phone kiosks. Phase one included the phone kiosks and was completed in August 2015. The street lighting installations are phase two and will be completed by December 2015, although the access point is available as soon as the installation on an individual lighting column is complete;

(d)  the City Council has a concession arrangement which is operated by BT for a 10 year term, at no cost to the Council. BT have experience of providing the service in other cities and the Olympic Park;

(e)  the wifi features:

·  a Nottingham branded landing page;

·  #NottinghamCityFREE sign in title;

·  a simple one-off registration process for users, with no cost;

·  one single service domain so there is seamless service from one wifi access point to another;

·  an average demand per access point of 7 megabits per second;

(f)  the access points are primarily in areas of high foot fall and areas that the Council wants to attract people to use. The routes through the City are well covered, including up to the Castle and up Derby Road;

(g)  there is strong signal between the access points but it will be strongest when close to an access point. Signage on street lighting and on phone kiosks will indicate where access points are;

(h)  future potential opportunities include:

·  proactive working between the operator, the Council and stakeholders;

·  ‘Big Data’ providing behavioural insight for marketing and planning;

·  Location based retail and tourism apps;

·  Smart City communications.

The following comments were made during the discussion:

(i)  41 access points appears to be a relatively small number, but is comparable with other cities across the UK;

(j)  wifi is available in both Intu shopping centres;

(k)  once users are registered, they will automatically be connected when they are in range of an access point;

(l)  there was promotion in August when the first access points were installed, and there will be further promotion once the remaining access points are installed in December;

(m)  although the bins that were installed in the City Centre have the capability to be access points, the signal isn’t very strong;

(n)  as IT changes frequently, there is scope within the 10 year agreement for changes to be made and the devices have the capacity to increase in speed, etc;

(o)  the possibility of using it to promote City Centre events needs to be investigated;

(p)  there is lots of other public wifi available within buildings in the City Centre so this is a positive addition;

(q)  Nottingham is one of the best served cities for Broadband, as 95% of properties are covered, but the area least well served is the City Centre because the driver for coverage is demand, which is greater in residential areas;

(r)  there is an issue with small businesses in the City Centre not being able to access reliable Broadband, but there are some opportunities emerging which should hopefully improve access.