The Greens have pledged that if elected, they will push for a $100,000 plan to get the nation’s capital hooked up with a free city Wi-Fi trial set to span town centres, bus services and other public areas.
The plan will see the Greens enable Wi-Fi in town centre hotspots around Canberra, on the city’s ACTION bus network and around various bus interchanges around town.
There’s no detail yet on just how the internet would be made available to commuters and city-dwellers. The Greens are still deciding whether or not it would be based on time or download limit, but they’re confident they can keep the cost of the trial down thanks to existing government telecommunications contracts.
The web will be filtered through the Wi-Fi hotspots under the territory government’s filtering protocol, and the trial will be analysed after a year to see if it’s something that should be deployed city-wide.
The Greens say that a city-wide Wi-Fi network for Canberra will bring it up to date with modern cities like New York and Wellington (?).
“Modern cities around the world, from Wellington to New York are establishing public Wi-Fi in city centres and on public transport. For a modest price we can help make public transport more enjoyable for commuters, and make our public space more attractive to visitors,” said Meredith Hunter, ACT Greens Parliamentary Leader.
Does Wi-Fi make the city? What’s your best public Wi-Fi story? [The Greens]
Image: The Greens