Posted: Tue 30th Aug 2016

Town Centre WiFi Hotspots Set To Go Live Next Month – A Year After Being Installed

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Aug 30th, 2016

New WiFi hotspots across the town centre are due to go live within the next month – just over a year after they were initially installed.

In March 2015 Wrexham.com reported that Wrexham Council had approved plans to undergo an extensive upgrade of their town centre CCTV system.

Previously the town centre was covered by analogue CCTV. However under Wrexham’s Council’s plans the system was to be replaced with a ‘hybrid’ transmission system consisting of 24 cameras.

The creation of a network of Wifi hotspots across the town centre also featured as part of the upgrade with Wrexham Council stating in 2015 that the system would allow ‘visitors and residents improved access to public services and local businesses to be more competitive online’.

Funding for the new system came from capital funding of £74k allocated by the Council, with £158k from the Assets and Economic department, and £168k from ‘Vibrant and Viable Places’.

Work installing the new CCTV systems in Wrexham began in June 2015 and just over a year later there has been confusion from some shoppers / local businesses as to when the Wifi hotspots were going to work.

Initially it was hoped that the new WiFi connection would up and running last year, with a spokesperson for Wrexham Council stating in June 2015: “We will be offering a limited amount of free WiFi per day for residents, visitors etc. We hope to have the system fully operational by September.”

This seemed to change last week when Wrexham.com reader got in touch to say that a Wifi hotspot from one camera had appeared on on their phone.

Wrexham.com queried with Wrexham Council last week to see if the town centre WiFi hotspots were just going live or if there had been delays setting it up. We also asked if there was any clarification on what caused the delays and when the hotspots first went live.

A Wrexham Council spokesperson told us: “Testing of the hotspots is ongoing, and we hope to have them all live in three to four weeks’ time.”

We also queried if there had been any additional cost to the council with the delays of the wifi – or has it still been funded by the VVP.

We were told that ‘there has been no issue with VVP funding with the Wi-Fi/CCTV project’.

Pictured – Wrexham’s new CCTV / Wifi system when it was installed in June 2015.



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