Member Article

Manchester and Salford roll out £7.25m free public wifi scheme

Greater Manchester has started the rollout of free wifi to trams, over 200 buildings and improved on-street coverage.

The innovative £7.25m scheme is being run by Manchester City Council, Salford City Council and Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) - with funding from Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Thanks to the scheme, Manchester and Salford are providing superfast free Wifi in public buildings right across the cities and on Metrolink trams.

Free superfast wifi is to be made available in more than 120 Manchester council buildings including all libraries, the Town Hall as well as other civic buildings from community centres, sports centres, park buildings and galleries and museums.

Free Wifi has already been switched on at Central Library and at the Town Hall Extension, with a further 119 sites set to be up and running by the end of March.

The WiFi is under the name _BusyBeeMcr and users can surf from with no time limit throughout the week, when these venues are open. Capital funding for the _Busybee network has been provided by BDUK.

And in Salford, unlimited free wifi will be extended to 91 buildings under the banner of _FreebeeSalford, including libraries, leisure centres, The Lowry and Salford Museum and Art Gallery - giving instant access for residents and visitors.

As part of the scheme, £1.7m has also been invested so that Metrolink customers can surf the web for free, with the roll out of free Wifi on every tram.

All 96 trams have been kitted out with the new technology, joining the 20 buses running the free city centre Metroshuttle service.

Councillor Andrew Fender, chair of the TfGM Committee, said: “Metrolink is not only the largest light rail network in the UK, but now also the first light railway in England to become fully wifi capable, symbolising the region’s digital ambitions.

“With over 30 million passenger trips made on Metrolink every year, this will help hundreds of thousands of people make the best use of their travel time with quick and simple access to free wifi.”

Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council, said: “Creating a powerful, nationally significant network of free, high quality Wifi services across Manchester is another step towards achieving our goal for Manchester to be a world-leading digital city by 2020.

“We can now offer superfast, free internet connectivity close to people’s homes all over Manchester and have also greatly enhanced our city centre coverage, creating the largest on-street network in the country for our residents, visitors and businesses.

“This scheme will bring huge social benefits and help to support the continued growth of the city’s economy.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .