By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
PRESS RELEASE
Aarhus, Denmark, May 14, 2018: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
This week the European Commission will begin the process of awarding thousands of municipalities across the EU with grants to build municipal Wi-Fi networks. During the next three years the EC will inject a total of €120M into new infrastructure for free Wi-Fi across the EU.
At Wi-Fi NOW we want to make absolutely certain that this project – which is of unprecedented importance to Europe and to the global Wi-Fi industry – is successful. To that end Wi-Fi NOW has today entered into an agreement with several partners to form a support and service organisation aimed at ensuring the successful introduction of WiFi4EU-funded free Wi-Fi services.
The organisation is known as the WiFi4Europe Network Services Group or WNSG. The organisation will rely on (and is partly owned by) a number of partners to be named at a later date. In the spirit of full transparency we will release more information on the WNSG structure and ownership in due course.
The expressed goal of WiFi4EU is to effectuate the build of up to 8,000 municipal Wi-Fi networks. But a successful free municipal Wi-Fi service involves a lot more than simply installing a handful of Wi-Fi routers and connecting them to the Internet. To ensure maximum utility of prospective WiFi4EU networks, WNSG provides the following services:
- Network management services
- Definition and/or review of project goals (purpose, technical specifications, etc.)
- Advice on network solution development & vendor / partner selection
- Optimisation of project utility value (service marketing, information sharing, etc.)
- Community support & participation with other WiFi4EU participants (membership-based)
- Ongoing information & best practices sharing (membership-based)
- A vision towards developing a WiFi4EU certification program (likely in 2019)
The advisory services and memberships are offered at minimum possible cost levels in order to benefit as many municipalities – large and small – as possible. The WNSG secretariat is staffed by technical and institutional experts with specific expertise and experience in municipal Wi-Fi.
Here is a short appeal: If you are a municipality or equipment/service supplier with the intention of participating in the WiFi4EU program, we encourage you to contact us immediately. It is of the utmost importance for the success of WiFi4EU that as many as parties as possible engage in information sharing and consistent practices from the start. We stand ready to serve you.
For more information contact us at this email address today: [email protected]
For more about the WiFi4EU program also read here, here, and here.
/Claus.
