Leichhardt City Council is hooking people up to the web on the streets. Image: Erin Pettigrew
It’s a service that society is beginning to take for granted, especially when at home or at work, but now local governments are starting to answer the calls for public Wi-Fi to be installed in high traffic areas.
The latest local government jurisdiction to do this is Leichhardt City Council in Sydney’s inner west, which has joined the ranks of Adelaide, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in providing free Wi-Fi and high speed internet access in the city’s main streets.
The free public Wi-Fi will be installed on four main streets of the municipality including Darling Street (Balmain and Rozelle), Norton Street (Leichhardt) as well as Booth and Johnson Streets (Annandale).
They will be an addition to the 10 free Wi-Fi access sites across the municipality that are currently provided by the council, including at the Libraries and Town Halls (Balmain and Leichhardt), LPAC, Dawn Fraser Baths, Pioneers Park, Annandale Shops, Hannaford Community Centre and Leichhardt Oval.
Public Wi-Fi is a service that is commonly provided by private bodies, such as shops, hotels, cafés, convention centres and even any McDonald’s outlet, which has become a staple of the fast food conglomerate’s range of services.
And it’s even being touted as a potential service in public transport in other jurisdictions, such as Western Australia, where the Colin Barnet government began a formal consultation process for the provision of internet services on buses, trains and stations in 2015.
The WA government has been looking at potential tenderers for Wi-Fi on public transport, and so will Leichhardt City Council in its own public Wi-Fi solution, where it will invite third party providers to submit tender responses for the installation and ongoing management of the Wi-Fi access points and to report back on the outcomes to the April 2016 Ordinary council meeting.
Leichhardt Mayor Darcy Byrne said the roll out of this service would benefit the business community, residents and visitors as well as contribute to community wellbeing.
“Council already has more than 1,200 residents working from home businesses and the provision of free W-Fi will help break down their isolation by enticing them on to our main streets to meet with clients and colleagues,” Mr Byrne said.
Mr Byrne said council’s research indicated that free Wi-Fi availability has led to increased patronage in other suburbs where it has been provided which results in a host of positive flow-on effects for the local community and economy.
“The provision of free public Wi-Fi is an investment in our local community who are very Internet savvy and is an economic development initiative to support local businesses,” he said.
The council also offered some of the findings of its research into the benefits of public Wi-Fi coverage, which include enhancing visitor experience and therefore increased patronage; increasing dwell time and expenditure in businesses; and attracting new businesses into the area which in turn would lead to increased employment.
