Bristol - Wireless City
December 3, 2006 Posted by Stephen Hilton in : Digital Challenge , trackback
Picking up on Jane’s post here – my take on of the story is as follows;
Bristol City Council issued an open expressions of interest document in which we invited suppliers of wireless networks to invest in Bristol, to help make it Europe’s most connected city. We didn’t offer money (as I don’t have any) but simply pointed out that Bristol is a fantastic place with thousands of students, a buoyant economy and a flare for innovation. Surely, any forward-thinking supplier would want to establish a footprint here??
We received six responses and met with four companies. All of whom had something unique to offer.
In the end we chose City Space who will now more than double the size of the existing network. Read BBC coverage here. The decision was based on the fact that City Space strongly share our vision of connectivity not only in the city centre but also in less affluent neighbourhoods as a catalyst for regeneration. City Space also shares our commitment to removing barriers to connectivity and believes that free-at-the-point-of-use-access is important.
Although we have made a decision, I also see a win-win situation for the city. City Space is keen to work with Bristol Wireless, another strong bidder who pioneered Bristol’s vision for greater uptake in South Bristol. City Space are happy to work with The Cloud, a bidder who already have a large number of wireless hotspots in the city and who bring an interesting multi-provider offering (from Nintendo gaming to Skype to BT Open Zone). They are also happy to work with our final bidder (a major national supplier who may not want to be named here).
People keep asking me if it is too late for them to get involved in the wireless project. The answer is an emphatic ‘NO’. Whilst we need some time to establish a working relationship with City Space; we have set a big vision for the city. We certainly don’t have a complete solution in place yet and everyone is agreed that the wireless market is in its infancy. We have taken a significant step with this decision but who and how services and connectivity are delivered is something that we will need to keep talking about for many years to come.
Comments»
Stephen
How do Bristol's plans compare with those of Manchester, which have been so widely trumpeted in the media over the last few days.
Woodsy
Mmmmh - Dave Carter from Manchester has done a fantastic job in raising the media profile of the importance of community broadband…. In Manchester.
Whilst I am pleased about this (publicity for one is good for all), if I am honest, I also feel a bit gutted.
We had several press agencies on the Bristol case last week. I flew to the International Wireless Cities gathering in Cannes and did interviews with the Guardian and MJ.
I am convinced that Bristol has by far the stronger story to tell but as ever, we haven't quite capitalised on our potential. I absolutely feel that we need to sell Bristol's successes far harder.
However, I will not be discouraged. I will just try even harder next week (enter for a few more awards etc) and I encourage everyone else to do the same because on the ground, no one can match us.
The local rag in Manchester is the Manchester Evening News, owned by - oh dear - The Guardian (formerly - it gets worse I'm afraid - The Manchester Guardian). Hence Manchester gets in The Guardian a lot.
But I suppose if your city is responsible for creating one of the greatest liberal newspapers in the world you are going to get a few advantages out of it.
Conversely, if all your city has to show for 250 years of newspaper history is The Bristol Evening Post then you're going to see some mighty large disadvantages…
For more on this story see Techworld's coverage of the city wi-fi debate
http://www.techworld.com/mobility/news/index.cfm?newsID=7470&pagtype=allThis
For those wishing to have a look at Manchester's proposals, the document (MS Word format) is available from http://www.manchesterdda.com/file_download/8
The Gadgest Show Campaign fof FREE WiFi.
A few weeks ago on The Gadget Show (Monday nights, Channel 5), Jason Bradbury (a ex-Bristolian) explored a pilot scheme which supplies the city of Norwich with free WiFi internet access for its people.
A great idea, but not enough. Jason and The Gadget Show team, want to see free WiFi in every major town and city in the UK; for business, for tourism, for the future, and for anyone and everyone who relies on the internet.
If you agree, please sign up to their online campaign here, and The Gadget Show will take it all the way to the top. (Hope the PM is listening!)
More info and to sign up at:
http://gadgetshow.five.tv/campaign/wifi
Thanks!
Opps.. mistake!
The Gadgest Show Campaign fof FREE WiFi
should read…:
The Gadgest Show Campaign for FREE WiFi
The WiFi West (The Guardian, August 2004)
the Guardian's Jack Schofield, wrote about Bristol's hot spot..:
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1280760,00.html
South West Usability Group: Bristol : The Wi-Fi City
http://usability.typepad.com/swug/2004/08/bristol_the_wif.html
In ref to post 6…: The Gadgest Show Campaign for FREE WiFi.
Here are the links for Jason Bradbury (ex-Bristolian), and his technolgy blogs.
http://www.jasonbradbury.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Bradbury
Sam
Re your reference to Jack Schofield's visit, as with most out-of-town hacks, he never got further than the city centre. Therefore he completely ignored the work that had been patiently done by Bristol Wireless in not so glitzy Easton. Fortunately, this was remedied in the following week's correspondence by Sean Kenny who wrote:
" Your article Wi-Fi in the West (August 12) was very interesting for our organisation, but we were a little surprised that the work we have been doing in the east of Bristol over the last two years was not mentioned.
Bristol Wireless is a community-owned and democratically controlled not-for-profit cooperative whose main aim is to develop a series of internet access hotspots to local people where they have previously been "digitally challenged". We have rolled out our wireless network covering over a square mile of east Bristol using recycled and donated equipment and open source software. We have a range of projects on the go - with local schools, supported residential accommodation, refugee groups to name some - and all done with volunteer effort and little to no funding.
Many of our members think it unlikely the council would be the Wi-Fi innovator it is without the example of our project in the city. "
Source: http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1285533,00.html
(Sean's letter is at the foot of the page)
[…] Firstly, in Bristol Cityspace, one of the country's leading providers of urban digital networks, and the operator of the city centre StreetNet network, announced its selection as Bristol City Council's preferred partner for a major expansion of the existing 3 km long StreetNet wireless network originally deployed as a pilot by Cityspace in 2004. The Connecting Bristol blog also reports that Cityspace is keen to work with Bristol Wireless on the network expansion. […]
[…] Connectivity Helen Bream fed back on work stream one: A significant amount of her work has been around how we can join up the wired connectivity in the city (City of Bristol College, Bristol City Council and BMEX) to use it more efficiently and to feed spare capacity into wireless connectivity for citizens. Helen has also been involved with the Council’s award of the wireless tender, and has established a providers group, including Cityspace, Bristol Wireless, Knowlewestweb, The Cloud and BT, to ensure collaboration (alongside competition) around what coverage exists and where the gaps are. […]