Brighton misses out in bid to be UK's first wi-fi city (From The Argus)

Brighton misses out in bid to be UK's first wi-fi city

12:00pm Saturday 21st November 2009 in

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Brighton and Hove has been beaten in its ambition to become the UK's first wi-fi city.

Swindon's borough council has announced it will go ahead with plans for a wireless network providing partially free broadband to all of its 186,000 residents.

It will install 1,400 access points on street lamps, in partnership with two firms who hope to make money selling upgrades to businesses.

The announcement follows more than two years after Brighton and Hove City Council revealed it was investigating installing a wireless network for the city centre, which would have been the first in the country.

Little progress appears to have been made since.

Yesterday the council said it was still investigating but no talks were currently taking place with providers.

A council spokeswoman said since the plan was mooted private providers had made wireless internet available through much of the city centre.