By Julian Goldsmith, 21 May 2008 16:56
NEWS
Solihull Metropolitan Council is planning to offer housing tenants in six buildings free internet access through their power points.
The residents of the eight multi-storey buildings around North Solihull, near Birmingham, will be able to get internet access at broadband speeds through an internet connectivity unit that plugs into the wall sockets, with a three-pin interface on one side and an Ethernet port on the other.
Internet access will be delivered to the buildings over a wireless connectivity service called RedKite, provided by ISP CI-Net. The base station is located five miles away on a Solihull Community Housing (the organisation that oversees council housing for the authority) building.
Access will be financed by the authority and the initiative is an effort to bridge the digital divide among council tenants who are likely to be the most socially disadvantaged in the area.
Around 180 residents will benefit.
Solihull Community Housing head of IT Chris Deery told silicon.com: "We are aware of the disadvantages suffered by the residents in these blocks and this is part of the council's attempt to improve their life chances."
The first block will be cabled for internet access through June, with roll out to the other five completed by the end of the summer. The rollout will then be used as a pilot to apply for further funding for more council buildings.
The initial set up cost is around £60,000 with a service cost of £24,000 per year. Deery expects the cost to come down if the council is able to add more buildings to the network.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Could this go city wide? Could the electricity utility suppliers offer this?
2. Charlie Anderson
It is not "free" as the taxpayers are funding the service. Clearly that council has more funds available than it needs.
If they want to aid the poor people who are Internet deficient why don't they do just that and charge the people in those buildings who can afford to pay.
It shouldn't cost £60,000 to install a couple of routers/repeaters and and DSL link in a few buildings.
3. anonymous
and why are a cash strapped council funding this ?
Madness............
4. Chris Goodman
While the sentiment is laudable, the cost as a charge to tax payers is not at all acceptable. The occupants of this housing are living in taxpayer subsidised accommodation and, in many cases, also getting tax payer funded rent allowance. Before any further disincentive to better them selves is offered, it would perhaps be sensible to see how many occupants have cars, Sky or cable TV, smoke, etc - and then, only then, offer basic pay as you go broadband.
5. Andrew Robb
£39/month is too expensive
Adding the installation cost £60k and the running cost £24k for the first year gives an average monthly cost of £38.88 for each of the 180 tenants in the first year. Sure, this drops to £11.11 for subsequent years.
Couldn't they have negotiated a better bulk deal using existing phone lines?
6. anonymous
and next year free Sky ~
7. anonymous
Fantastic idea but sounds like the council haven't negotiated a particularly good deal. Despite what some might think the digital divide is real and has a great effect on the poor. We need more initiatives like this and while we are at it why not provide every child at school with an eeepc/ elonex one or similar device?