Last year, when I first wrote to the movers and shakers in the economic development schene in Oxford about the idea for Wireless Oxford I got very little response. But in the past few months one of those we wrote to back then, the Hamilton Trust, has got back in touch interested about the potential for Wireless Oxford to deliver low cost or even free basic internet access to school children as part of wider projects the trust is working on to improve access to educational facilities for all kids, but especially focussing on families with fewer resources of their own.

On Saturday the Oxford Mail ran a story entitled "Let's Create a Free Internet" having picked up on the idea from my main personal Blog.

Tonight I have been asked onto the Bill Heine "drive time" program between 5pm and 6pm to discuss the idea with him. Though we are at a very early stage still, and I was at first a little reticent about making a big thing of it so early, the coverage has been sympathetic and if it gets more people interested and agitating for it to happen it can't be a bad thing!

Today we have begun to approach individuals and organisations who we feel may be willing to help promote Wireless Oxford and possibly to become involved as corporate partners. These range from the two universities, the City and County councils, to economic development organisations such as the Oxfordshire Economic Partnership and the Oxford Trust. Additionally we have contact a number of individuals who have interests in social and educational development in the city.

Most importantly perhaps, we have also approached two of the key technical and infrastructure suppliers of broadband mesh systems in the UK. One company already has a significant relationship and investment in Oxfordshire and the other operates a similar project for Milton Keynes and we hope that they will be willing to give us advice on preparing a business case and feasibility study from which we can create a prospectus to take Wireless Oxford one step further and look for wider support and investment.

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...

One of the principle aims of Wireless Oxford is that we should not be dependent on any one institution for funding. We believe that the system can be built using "invest to save" funds from the major employers and users of ICT who may see substantial reductions in their ICT/network costs as a result of switching to wireless or those who may see substantial business opportunities in using a wireless infrastructure.

So whilst it is important for the project that the local authorities support us (for example we will need the County Council on board since the most obvious place for most of the access points will be on street lamp posts), we're not looking for them to dig into their already stretched budgets (except as above perhaps their ICT budgets where savings can be made) to kick start it.

Initial thoughts are that we might structure as a Limited Liability Partnership which investors, site owners, subscribers and others can join to share in the benefits of social ownership. To this we would want to add one or more infrastructure partners to whom we will let the contract to install and maintain the hardware and software required. Content providers and advertisers could also become partners.

Returns for investors, rent for site use and so on would be paid out of turnover, whilst profits would be put towards "digital inclusion" programs to help as many people and communities as possible benefit from the opportunities offered by the network.

So, whether you are an individual wanting to use the technology and prepared to invest a little, in time developing the idea or money to help us get going, a high end ICT user looking to make savings on your current arrangements, a business who sees a business opportunity in implementing wireless technologies or perhaps a content provider or advertiser wanting a new way to reach a city wide audience, or are just interested in seeing how it develops, do please get in touch with us.

We'll be adding more interactive features to this website as time goes on, but for now you can contact us online using the link in the top right hand corner of the web page.

Wireless Oxford is promoting the concept of a "wireless mesh" of small, low power wireless access points throughout the entire built up area of Oxford. Every home, workplace, public space, school and community centre should be within reach of an access point, enabling people to access broadband internet, internet based telephony and other services for a simple, low subscription.

Premium services, allowing secured access for business applications, perhaps higher speed access, and content services will be additional and will help fund the overall costs of the project.

Furthermore, we recognize that many people are not online at all at the moment, simply because they lack the funds to acquire suitable equipment. Part of the "social profit" of the project will be to assist such people, community groups or businesses to get the equipment and training cheaply and many will qualify for assistance with subscription fees. We don't want anyone left out who wants to participate in the communications revolution to come but who can't just because they can't afford it!

We firmly believe that access to the cornucopia of information and opportunities available online will help such people economically. Apart from the unmatched access to information, public services, knowledge and entertainment, one can make great savings on all sorts of things, from holidays to credit cards through online deals and at the moment, the very households who could benefit most from saving a little bit here and there are excluded from doing so just because they can't access the technology because of cost.

Imagine being able to connect wirelessly to broadband internet, telephony and other online services from wherever you happen to be in the city. From Lakeside in the north to Grenoble Road in the south, from Sandhills Primary School in the east to the Seacourt Park and Ride in the west and all points in between*. All for one low daily, weekly or annual subscription. You could use a laptop, a personal digital assistant, a wireless internet telephone, perhaps even subscription television services.

For businesses and service providers, imagine your field employees being able to get access to your systems from wherever they are working, out on a job somewhere, in meetings with clients, anywhere. Or perhaps you want to link to monitoring devices cheaply and quickly with no wired setup to arrange - such as a health care provider wanting to put equipment into a patient's home to alert central clinical staff instantly to changes in the patient's condition. Maybe you are a security company wanting to link in multiple alarm or call out systems. Or perhaps a utility wanting to take meter readings remotely. Even a bus company wanting to put interactive displays at bus stops.

We are now completely immersed in all pervasive information, whether we are learning, shopping, being entertained, or just waiting for a bus, but we always seem to be in the wrong place to access it. Maybe even some areas do not have the ability to access it at all. Whilst providing the infrastructure to deliver this information has been seen up till now as a commercial, market driven activity, we actually believe that this is a "civic" function, just as access to good roads, electricity supplies and sewage systems has been in the past.

If all our citizens and all our businesses that play a vital role in our local economy are to compete on favourable terms, we cannot wait till the big telecoms giants decide it's worth investing in a particular area. If we are able to provide the infrastructure, innovations that make use of it will follow.

We believe that as well as opening up new ways of operating for businesses that may be able to use remote access, having a socially owned, citizen responsive, low cost ICT infrastructure could significantly reduce the costs of doing business compared with now, where you might have different contracts for phones, mobile phones, wireless devices and computer connections. This potential cost saving is key to our business model. If we can persuade the largest ICT users in the city of the benefits, we hope they may be willing to pre-fund some of the replacement system that they will then benefit from on an "invest to save" basis.

* There's no reason why the network can't reach further - an obvious example being into the Vale of White Horse area to the west of the city at Botley/Cumnor. At the moment we aim for coverage over the city's contiguous built up area, but additional "hops" to more remote locations are certainly a longer term prospect