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.
