Adelaide switches on free outdoor wi-fi

The South Australian Government today officially cut the ribbon on the Adelaide CBD's free outdoor wi-fi network, as part of a $1.5 million contract awarded to Adelaide-based internet service provider Internode late last year.

Internode began building the new AdelaideFree network last August. Today marks the effective completion of the project, which encompasses nearly 300 Cisco outdoor wireless access points blanketing the majority of the CBD, and which is expected reach around 30,000 people each day.

Internode also upgraded its existing ten year-old free CityLan wireless network to merge it with AdelaideFree as part of the project, updating the existing 100 wireless access points to the same Cisco Wireless-N technology. 

The merging of the two networks means Adelaide citizens will get coverage in a number of indoor cafes, restaurants and shops through the old CityLan network, as well as AdelaideFree's 200-odd external access points.

The network is around 98 percent complete an Internode spokesperson said, with some remaining access points still needing to be installed in Rundle Park, which is currently a construction zone. 

Internode said it plans to add an extra 11 access points - at the SA State Library and SA Museum - over the coming months.

Late last month Internode parent company iiNet announced it had won a five-year contract to offer free wi-fi to Canberrans, and would roll out more than 700 Cisco wireless access points across 12 business districts by next June under the $4 million "CBRFree" project.

iiNet has also provided the Perth CBD with 15 free wi-fi hotspots since 2012.