Perth-based internet service provider iiNet is working on its third contract to build a public wireless internet network outside of Western Australia.
Perth-based internet service provider iiNet is working on its third contract to build a public wireless internet network outside of Western Australia.
Last week, the Victorian state government announced iiNet was building a $6.7 million WiFi network with central Melbourne, central Ballarat and central Bendigo the first sites expected to go live.
Beyond the first locations, 1,000 additional locations will be added to the network by the end of December 2015.
The announcement follows iiNet’s work to build similar systems in Canberra and Adelaide.
In South Australia, iiNet utilised the acquisition of long-time free WiFi provider Internode in December 2011 to establish the network.
Internode had been providing free wireless hotspots for more than five years. Following the iiNet acquisition, deals were struck with the Adelaide City Council and South Australian government to build a more comprehensive network.
The resulting AdelaideFree network was officially switched on in June this year.
While iiNet was completing that project, it was also in discussions with stakeholders in Canberra about building what was expected to be Australia’s largest public WiFi network, in the ACT.
In May of this year it announced it had struck a deal worth $3.1 million with the ACT government to build a network across town centres and commercial precincts.
Sites across the ACT will go live in a staged rollout as areas are completed, with the entire project expected to be finished by the end of 2015.
iiNet’s third contract for constructing blanket WiFi networks (as opposed to hotspots) comes almost a year after the City of Perth launched its version here.
It’s understood iiNet approached the City of Perth to help construct a WiFi network but had been turned away.
The City of Perth also opted to build its own network despite one already operating in the city.
aCure Technology (now part of Amcom Telecommunications) launched a blanket WiFi network in 2006 initially as a paid-for-use service.
However, it lifted the paywall in October 2012 – making it free for the public – and offered to sell to the City of Perth.
The City of Perth spent $300,000 building its own network, which costs $150,000 per year to maintain.
