Praise has been given to work carried out to extend access to public WiFi across Sunderland and the early success of a new dedicated city-wide app.
Sunderland City Council bosses stressed they have been working “very hard” and made some “great progress” in terms of providing online network connections over the last five years.
A local authority scrutiny co-ordinating committee meeting (on Thursday, October 10) heard there were 52,059 unique connections to the free public WiFi on offer in Sunderland in September, 21,502 of which were students through the Eduroam network.
The figure has been rising month on month, with 47,925 unique connections in August, including 16,810 through Eduroam, and 46, 677 in July, featuring 18,532 students connecting.
In contrast council chiefs previously reported how from April to June 2023 there were 74,324 instances of access to public WiFi across the whole three month period.
Liz St Louis, director of Smart Cities, said the project to increase access to public WiFi in Sunderland has been going “very well”.
She said: “It’s all about ubiquitous connectivity, when we started our journey five years ago there was very poor connectivity in Sunderland.
“We’ve worked very hard and made some great progress in terms of building a network of networks for all kinds of purposes.
“Every time we get an opportunity, every time more government funding comes out, or every time we can work with the private sector to get more funding we are constantly building those networks to benefit local people.”
She added they have ensured there are “no barriers” in place for people to access the free WiFi in the city centre, with no sign up needed.
The meeting also heard an update on the early success of the council’s “The Sunderland App” which launched around six weeks ago and is downloadable from Google Play and the Apple App Store.
Ms St Louis noted the app is “a one stop information shop” and in the first six weeks they have had nearly 4,000 downloads.
She added they are actively working with businesses to push and promote the app and help provide more offers and discounts through it.
The smart cities boss continued: “It’s to really help people around the city to understand what’s going on.
“What events have we got, what’s going on in our local venues, it’s got all kinds of offers and discounts.
“It links into our traffic sensors so we can let people know what our traffic is like, and you can sign up to get notifications and alerts about what’s going on.”
Local authority chiefs also reassured councillors that they are “seeking opportunities all of the time” to expand their WiFi and connectivity offers into the Washington and Coalfield areas of Sunderland.
Councillor Claire Rowntree, chair of the scrutiny co-ordinating committee, said: “I think it’s really impressive to see how the city is developing digitally and how it is actually enhancing people’s lifestyles.
“I think it says an awful lot about who we are as a city and that we want our residents to thrive.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Nic Marko
Quelle/Source: Sunderland Echo, 13.10.2024
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