How we are different

You may have heard about other projects going on in cities across the UK and beyond. Last autumn Norwich claimed the title as the first place with widespread free wireless access for example. Recently there has been much coverage of Manchester's ambitious idea to connect the entire 400 square miles and 2.2 million population of their metropolitan area.

Wireless Oxford would be different...

Norwich and South Norfolk is a pilot project entirely funded by the East of England Development Agency to run for two years initially. Because it has public funding it's not allowed to compete with commercial operators. As a result the general public only have access to relatively low 256kbp bandwidth. It is also, despite the impression the media have given to the contrary, still only accessible in parts of the city and in village based hot-spots in South Norfolk district.

If we can succeed in creating a socially owned but commercially viable network for Oxford we will not be restricted in this way. First thoughts are that we won't be aiming for completely free access - that there will be some kind of relatively cheap monthly or annual subscription for residents and businesses wanting basic access. We also set out with the aim of connecting the entire built up area, allowing residents and businesses in their homes and offices to access the mesh network, as well as to wander around outside.

Manchester's bold ideas too are part of a bid for government funding from the Digital Cities Initiative. And obviously with such a large area to cover and such a huge population to service, theirs could take several years to complete. If we can put the financing together, connection of the 40 square kilometers of Oxford's entire built up area could be very quick. Philadelphia estimate that they can put up ten access points per engineer per day - Oxford's 200 or so could be up within weeks if everything fell into place.