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Signal is a next generation wireless network provider with a difference. We are not just selling connectivity but many useful applications that will benefit whole communities. As part of our service we are offering limited free access to our networks.
The majority of those with an SN6 7 post code can now enjoy 2 hours free internet, or upgrade to our 24/7 faster paid service for just £9.99 per month, and the first month is FREE.
For those of you in Highworth that we cannot get to at present I hope the following explanation helps,
To be able to cover the remaining area we have two challenges to overcome. Our equipment is mounted on lampposts and therefore our ability to provide coverage is predicated on the availability of appropriate street furniture. In some areas there are concrete lampposts on which we cannot mount our equipment because it is perceived to pose a weight threat to the structural integrity of the post, the second challenge is that we have a number of quite short posts or posts which are in dips, this makes it harder to get effective radio communication between posts.
In the medium to long term we are maintaining a dialogue with Swindon Borough Council who do have a programme of replacing concrete lampposts with more modern steel ones. As Street furniture is upgraded we hope to be able to extend our network coverage. We are not in a position to put a timetable on when this might happen.
After months of scrutiny and allegations, the District Auditor has said that Swindon Council followed the letter of the law in securing its wi-fi contract with Digital City.
British web users are spending 65% more time online than three years ago, according to research of net habits.
The Government’s Champion for Digital Inclusion, Martha Lane Fox (co-founder of lastminute.com), told BBC’s Working Lunch that the economic benefit of complete digital inclusion would amount to £22 billion, through better education, increased employment and the saving individuals could make.
“The web really has changed the dynamics of our economy and we need to make sure that is true for every single person in the UK.”
Highworth in Wiltshire has become Britain’s first wi-fi town, giving all its residents free internet access.
Who really cares if everyone in Swindon has free or cheap access to wi-fi or not?
Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.
First phase of Swindon council’s free internet plan completed
Chamber event offers local businesses an update on wi-fi roll-out
Scientists probe laptops’ Wi-Fi emissions
Installation
As I am sure you are all aware the installation in Highworth has not gone to plan. There are several reasons for this - topography, approvals and snow to name a few. A big part of potential users’ frustration has been that they can see our equipment (nodes) on lampposts so assume they are working when in fact they may not be. This is because a cluster of nodes could be waiting for one on higher ground nearby to be switched on and we may not yet have the approval. We have also had areas where there were no suitable lampposts and no public buildings to substitute. We have in the High Street spoken to retail businesses and begun to cover our black spots and hope to complete around the 15th. Once complete we will continue to work in the area for a week or two, optimising our network to make sure we are giving the best possible service.
Roll Out
We have our next planning meeting on the 16th and at this meeting we will be considering our wider roll out plans.
Usage
We have 500 users registered with 200 being live. Of the live users (who are all on the free service) we are seeing about 100 users on line at one time. We have not had one complaint from those who are able to connect.
Customer response
Customer response in the main remains positive but we know we have frustrated many because we went live with the PR before we were ready, as a result are always playing catch up.
Sales
Our sales plan is based on selling to around 5,000 homes out of the 88,000 in the Borough, 50% of which are not online, and 1,100 of the c10,000 businesses. On the basis that Highworth is c5% of our population, this gives us a target for new/converted private users of between 200/250 and around 20/25 businesses. I am targeting and expect more.
Marketing
Marketing for Highworth is of course going to be different from marketing to the whole Borough. The following is our initial plan.
In Highworth, from the end of February, we will carry out a leaflet drop, display window posters and place an advertisement in a community magazine. We will also be placing adverts for the free service (not yet designed) in as many public places as we will be allowed.
I am looking into taking a small retail presence on the High Street as a way of keeping our brand in front of potential users and am in very early talks with a local community group about them using the shop for community activity for free on the basis they staff the site. Our presence is more about the shop front and wall materials inside which will lead customers to our site.
I hope the above helps and you may wish to keep an eye on our website for further updates or follow us on Twitter by going to www.twitter.com/getsignal.
Rikki Hunt
CEO Digital City (UK) Ltd
This is my first broadband experience and I think it’s great - and it’s free!
Mr J Robinson, Highworth Resident, 17.03.10
The free wifi net from Signal being rolled out across Swindon and Highworth is surprisingly quick! Here’s to a national rollout.
Mr D Treadwell, Highworth Resident, 09.02.10
I managed to connect for the first time last night and used the full two hours straight away, I don’t have a landline so it’s the first time I’ve been able to access the internet and email from my flat – it’s fantastic. I definitely want to sign up for the 24/7 upgrade as soon as it’s available.
Mr M Holloway, Highworth Resident, 06.02.10
I just wanted to personally thank you for this project and cannot wait for it to arrive in my area. I live in Taw Hill, and still to this day, everyone in my street (Ashdown Way) has very very bad internet. My speed currently is around 512mbs which is awful. Your newsletter update is very informative and makes very good reading. I will wait as long as it takes for my area to get coverage and as soon as it does, I for one will be paying for the 20MBS option. Keep up the good work and again - Thanks!
Mr A Train, Swindon Resident, 04.02.10
I’m very excited about this service. I truly hope that your wifi nodes are of a high standard to handle large connection numbers!
Mr G McHugh, Swindon Resident, 03.02.10
I spoke with the chair of Highworth Business Group on Friday……..when I suggested it might be £9.99 for 20mb 24/7 his eyes lit up and he said he would look forward to completion.
HCPG welcomes the joint SBC/Getsignal initiative. For too long this rural area has been a blackspot for accessing broadband at a decent speed. It is exciting that someone is trying to alleviate this problem and create a service that addresses social need. We recognise the huge technical difficulties faced by the company and await completion with patience and anticipation.
A lady in Orange Close is using the free service and is delighted.
Mr K Smith, Highworth Community Partnership Group 31.01.10
Hi, I live in Henley Drive, Highworth and have just come back to England after a lengthy break in New Zealand to find Highworth has free wifi! ……..please advise what upgrade options are available should I want to have full access?
Mr R Kuklinksi, Highworth Resident 21.01.10
Hi, I live in Highworth and can see the free signal, 50Mbps and a good signal.
Mr M Stickley, Highworth Resident 14.01.10
Thanks for the reply, I live in Grove Hill Highworth and am looking forward to trying your service. If it proves reliable I will be signing up for the ‘up to 20 Mb’ service as I use the Internet a great deal at home.
Adrian Perkins, Highworth Resident, 05.01.10
Sounds great - let me know when you have any plans for Milton Keynes.
Tony Barron, 04.01.10
Just been reading in the Link Mag. further details of the planned Wifi installation across Swindon. I live in Taw Hill, Northern Swindon. Would I be able to get the same or better service that is currently provided by Tiscali? If so, when is the North part of Swindon to be connected to the network? THIS SCHEME IS A GREAT IDEA.
Paul Instone, 04.01.10
I live in highworth and am wondering if I will be able to pay to use the internet more often than the free two hours in the future?
Mr W Ralph, Highworth Resident 01.01.10
I am very excited about your project and have signed up to your newsletter and created a user account. I live in Purton and would like to know when this will be available in Purton? Also I work in Swindon and would love to know when the service will be available across Swindon. Many thanks - looking forward to enjoying your service and being part of such a ground breaking project.
John Grisley, 30.12.09
Many thanks for your two recent emails regarding the SSID name. Wishing you a Happy New Year and good luck for the Swindon project - I think it will be a fantastic achievement and a ‘poke in the eye’ to the traditional telecomms companies who charge a high price for broadband access with a disproportionate service offer when things go wrong!
Paul Webster, 30.12.09
Installation
Up until the arrival of the heavy snow, we were on target to complete Highworth by the 15th of January, having gone live with an area around the library on the 16th December. SCS, our installation and maintenance partner, are as you would expect snowed under right now so I am revising to end of January for the completion.
Usage
Currently we have 350 customers registered and last week had 141 live, of the live customers who are all on the free service (we won’t launch the paid service until Highworth is complete and quality assessed) we are seeing about 50 users on line at one time and they downloaded 20Gbs and uploaded 5Gbs. We have not had one complaint from those who are able to connect. If you are online I would appreciate some feedback send your comments to info@getsignal.co.uk
Customer response
I know there is an element of negative around the company but just for balance here are a few positive comments we have received from the public:
“Sounds great - let me know when you have any plans for Milton Keynes” (TB email 04.01.10)
“Thanks for the reply, I live in Grove Hill Highworth and am looking forward to trying your service. If it proves reliable I will be signing up for the ‘up to 20 Mb’ service as I use the Internet a great deal at home”. (AP email 05.01.10)
“Just been reading in the Link Mag. further details of the planned Wifi installation across Swindon. I live in Taw Hill, Northern Swindon. Would I be able to get the same or better service that is currently provided by Tiscali? If so, when is the North part of Swindon to be connected to the network? THIS SCHEME IS A GREAT IDEA”. (PI email 04.01.10)
“I am very excited about your project and have signed up to your newsletter and created a user account. I live in Purton and would like to know when this will be available in Purton? Also I work in Swindon and would love to know when the service will be available across Swindon. Many thanks - looking forward to enjoying your service and being part of such a ground breaking project”. (JG email 30.12.09)
“Many thanks for your two recent emails regarding the SSID name. Wishing you a Happy New Year and good luck for the Swindon project - I think it will be a fantastic achievement and a ‘poke in the eye’ to the traditional telecomms companies who charge a high price for broadband access with a disproportionate service offer when things go wrong!” (PW email 30.12.09)
Web
Our website is live but not yet complete, we expect to have it fully functioning by the end of January. This will include updated FAQ’s more related to being live, a live “chat to us” facility and full customer support. We also hope to have a postcode checker live soon, which will enable the customer to see when we will be coming to their area. Of course website development is an ongoing process and it will continue to develop. Any thoughts you have on our website enhancement would be greatly appreciated.
You will know that we launched with the www.getsignal.co.uk website but wanted the www.getsignal.com to protect us against others taking our traffic away. We have in the last few days secured it and will be live by the end of January, so whether you put. co.uk or .com you will go to our home page.
Product
As said above up until completion of Highworth we have only launched the free service. On completion of Highworth we will launch our connection only paid service and hopefully our SME business solutions.
We will be offering our first (not sure how many yet) Highworth customers the opportunity to try for free our first applications, which will probably be Energy Monitoring and CCTV Home Security. This will allow us to make sure that our back end vendor management systems are all working well.
We will add more applications as we continue the rollout.
Price
We have been looking at what the competition are doing around price and, short term promotions apart, for an up to 20 Mbs service, Virgin are offering Broadband only for £25 per month and BT £21 but you have to have their line which is another £11, so £31 in all. There are a host of others but all much the same when you strip out the promotions.
We will launch with the basic up to 20 Mbs connectivity at £9.99 per month with a free router and offer our router for sale to those who only want to stay on the two hours. We are working on the price at the moment.
Concerns
We are aware of the genuine concerns over health and security from some and we have responded to all requests for answers to those concerns. Of course we will never make everyone happy but we have tried to and, like any responsible company, will keep the situation under review.
Local suppliers
We are pleased that many of our suppliers are local companies. As of today we are working with the following local companies, Etherlive for equipment, SCS for installation and maintenance, DMN for technical support to SCS and Emnico for business support. We are using Thring Townsend for legal issues, Haines Watts for finance and Heath Lambert for insurance. There are four other companies who are pitching to us right now and I expect our local base to grow, particularly in the area of applications.
Sales
Our sales plan is based on selling to around 5,000 homes out of the 88,000, 50% of which are not online, and 1,100 of the c10,000 businesses.
From the feedback to date I would hope to achieve this and more, particularly in the business arena. We also have applications which I am confident we will be able to sell to the Police, PCT and Education services to name but a few. All services we sell will be competitively sold in the open market. We have no preferred supplier status nor do we want one. We think our products will sell because they are the best quality, at the best price and produce the best results.
We have had enquiries from 14 other Councils with eight being more serious than the rest.
I hope this update has been useful, please do let me know.
Rikki Hunt
CEO Digital City (UK) Ltd
E-mail; info@getsignal.co.uk
The big switch-on, a short video made by SwindonWeb covering our launch in Highworth yesterday.
From http://www.swindonweb.com/tv/index.asp?v=914&t=The+big+switch-on
To accompany our launch in Highworth yesterday, we decided to give away three 32gb Ipod Touch’s and three one year subscriptions to our unlimited Internet access plan.
A big thank you to everyone who came to the launch event, the lucky winners are below…
Ipod Touch 32gb
Cindy Acres
Karen Thurley
Charles Durrant
One Free Year’s Unlimited Internet Access
Norman Lambert
John Houghton
David Wakley
Far from resting on its laurels, the hitherto unsung technological hub of the M4 corridor yesterday announced its latest initiative to blaze a trail of technical and social innovation for the rest of Britain to follow…
A great article about us from the Times Online “Swindon to become first UK wi-fi town”
SWINDON is to become the first town in the UK to offer free wireless internet to all residents. The new £1m Swindon Council scheme will debut in Highworth next month and roll out to the whole borough by April.
ON A cold and drizzly autumn day, no one would mistake Swindon, a prosperous mid-sized town near Bristol, for northern California…
The health impacts of Swindon’s wi-fi scheme are to be discussed during an ‘emergency’ health overview and scrutiny meeting tonight.
Feature by John Popham, a representative of DC10 Plus
Dear Clients,
Below are our Christmas Hours;
Friday 24th December Open 8am to 2pm
Saturday 25th December Closed
Sunday 26th December Closed
Monday 27th December Closed
Tuesday 28th December Closed
Wednesday 29th December Open 9am to 5.30pm
Thursday 30th December Open 9am to 5.30pm
Friday 31st December Open 9am to 5.30pm
Saturday 1st January Closed
Sunday 2nd January Closed
Monday 3rd January Closed
Merry Christmas and a Happy New year from all at Signal.
“Based on current knowledge, RF exposures from Wi-Fi are likely to be lower than those from mobile phones”
(Source http://www.hpa.org.uk/HPA/Topics/Radiation/UnderstandingRadiation/1199451940308)
Please email our dedicated support team at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or by telephone on 01793 940045 (8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday, Saturday 9am to 2pm)
After months of scrutiny and allegations, the District Auditor has said that Swindon Council followed the letter of the law in securing its wi-fi contract with Digital City.
Read more...© 2009 Digital City (UK) LTD
