Residents of Copenhagen to soon have completely free wireless internet

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Strøget, one of the first parts of the city planned to have free wireless internet.

Noticed this here in Norwegian, 20 April:
Soon residents of Copenhagen will be able to use free wireless internet throughout the city. This decision has been made by the politicians of the city because they want the city's residents to not have to pay for the service, writes Berlingske.dk.

"The internet has become very important for making use of the city, for example going to the restaurant, to the swimming pool or the movies. Because of this it will be a big help to be able to use the internet in densely populated areas," said Anne Vang from the Social Democrats to the newspaper.

And from here in Danish with a question with the same political spokesperson:

People in Copenhagen and city guests will be able to use wireless internet throughout the city. A political majority in city hall want there to be hot spots set up for internet access for $160,000, first in the areas of Strøget, Nørrebrogade and Vesterbrogade, making it quick and easy for all to go on the internet and obtain information without having to enter into a payment agreement with an ISP.
...
Q: "Why do you believe that free internet is a municipal task?"
A: "We must recognize as a city that we live in an information-based society and help the city's residents and tourists as well as to prevent an increase in inequality, where some are disconnected from the information-based society. There is already free internet in libraries."
One possible snag:
TDC's chief for Public Affairs, Anders Thomsen, isn't convinced that the model is legal. "It's always worrying when a city wants to compete with private companies. The telecommunications market has been privatized and fully liberalized for ten years", he said.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who carries the cost of this?

Are we heading to a model where online services will be subscription based in this case?

Me said...

I assume municipal taxes would pay for it, but I haven't been able to find any more information on this so we'll probably need someone that knows more about the subject to comment. You could contact Anne Vang directly here:

http://www.annevang.dk/kontakt.php

I see there's another article here on free internet in Copenhagen, this time on the trains:

http://www.ilovegraffiti.de/en/2009/04/30/free-internet-in-copenhagen-s-trains

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