Australia’s minister for technology Gordon Rich-Phillips says a new public Wi-Fi scheme in Melbourne will provide support to small businesses and educational facilities.
According to itwire.com, it is also hoped that the provision of Wi-Fi will be useful to tourists visiting Melbourne too. Following a successful trial in Flinders Station, the free Wi-Fi service will soon be available in Melbourne’s Central Business District (CBD).
Now the Victorian government is looking for expressions of interest (EOI) to help implement another pilot in the city centre, reports theaustralian.com.au. Essentially, commercial operators would need to find a way to run the service at no cost to the government. For example, operators would use existing infrastructure and the Wi-Fi itself could be funded by advertising.
Premier Denis Napthine says the current aim is to rollout the service to important areas, such as transport hubs and tourist attractions.
“We recognise that providing free Wi-Fi access in central Melbourne is an important part of making Melbourne, which is already the most liveable city in the world, an even more worldly and more attractive city,” he explains. “We are encouraging innovative expressions of interest that will ensure a reliable, sustainable free service that is also filtered for prohibited and undesirable content.”
