Visitors to this year’s Bath Christmas Market will be able to access free Wi-Fi for the first time, thanks to a partnership between the Council and Bath Tourism Plus which will see a pilot superfast public Wi-Fi network launched.
Councillor Patrick Anketell-Jones (Conservative, Lansdown), Cabinet Member for Economic Development, said: “We’re taking the opportunity to pilot next generation superfast Wi-Fi to a high volume of people.
“This is a step up from the public Wi-Fi provided by some cities.
“This innovative pilot is part of the Digital B&NES project which aims to provide 21st Century technology across Bath and North East Somerset.
“The Council plans £2.3m investment to improve connectivity to support local businesses and communities.”
The free Wi-Fi zone will cover the areas where the Christmas Market stalls are, and will be available for the duration of the market, 26th November – 13th December.
The network is called ‘Christmas Market’ and a log-in page will direct the people to register once connected.
Bath Tourism Plus is encouraging people to sign into the Wi-Fi and to share photographs on social media using the hashtag #BathXmasMarket.
David James, Chief Executive or Bath Tourism Plus, explained: “This innovative Wi-Fo pilot scheme will allow even more people to share their ‘live’ experiences of the Bath Christmas Market, regularly voted the UK’s most popular festive market.
“Social media was the fourth most important prompt for visitors to last year’s market so introducing superfast WIFI will invariably encourage even more visitors to spread the magic of Christmas in Bath.”
Local residents with a Discovery Card will also be entitled to a series of discounts at some of the market stalls this year – visit http://www.bathchristmasmarket.co.uk/market/resident-discounts/ to find out more.
Across Bath and North East Somerset, the Council-supported Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) programme is on track to meet its target of delivering superfast broadband to around 90 per cent of households and businesses in Somerset and Devon by the end of 2016.
To date, more than 220,000 residents and businesses in the two counties have access to fibre broadband as a result of the CDS programme.
This has been made possible through the construction of almost 1000 fibre broadband cabinets and the laying of many thousands of kilometres of fibre optic cables. This work is being delivered by BT.
Residents and businesses can keep up to date with the latest cabinets going live via Twitter @DCCSCCBroadband or via www.connectingdevonandsomerset.co.uk.
If your area has “gone green” then you can contact your Internet Service Provider to arrange a fibre broadband service.