Words: Ellen Kenny
Asking your friends to borrow their hotspots and loitering in coffee shops will soon be a thing of the past.
Following a successful trial, free public WiFi through OpenRoaming will be rolled out across the city.
The new system was initially trialled at Barnardo Square, Dame Street and the area around Dublin City Council’s headquarters in Wood Quay.
With 150 public hotspots, OpenRoaming allows users to “maintain seamless connectivity” across Dublin.
The trial was set up by the council’s “Smart Dublin” programme in association with Virgin Media, Commscope and the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA).
Jamie Cudden, leader of the Smart city programme said that the new system will put Dublin at the “forefront of a digital transformation” that will serve as an example for other cities across the world. WBA Chief Tiago Rodrigues agreed that “WiFi is the foundation for smart cities… This successful truth of concept trial shows that the city of Dublin and its residents, businesses and visitors all can depend on the WBA Open Roaming standard to ensure that they always have convenient access to seamless secure, carrier-grade WiFi connectivity.”
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