Swindon council promises townsfolk free Wi-Fi XTC

Swindon council has bought into the municipal Wi-Fi dream, taking a 35 per cent stake in a firm that will build a mesh network to give the Wiltshire town's citizens free net access. Swindon Borough Council has partnered with aQovia to put up 1,400 access points in the city, and target the technology at other towns in the UK. …

[Marketing Mike]

Swindon WiFi

Love the references to Swindon's finest!

Wonder what the Generals and Majors in the Towers of London would make of Swindon being one of the first to offer free WiFi. I'm sure the Mayor of Simpleton would be The Disappointed one.

Go!

[Captain Hogwash]

Anyone remember...

Satirical songsmith Mitch Benn's "Swindon, City of Tomorrow"?

[Anonymous Coward]

WPA?

But WPA has been cracked... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/10/graphics_card_wireless_hacking/

Surely they should require everyone to connect through a VPN?

[Spiracle]

Swindon's finest...

Drums & Wireless?

[Fenton]

A god send!

Ahh. At least I can surf on the go in Swindon. There is F all else you can do there

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

They could offer...

Free wi-fi, prostitutes, whisky and suitcases of hard cash and I still wouldn't want to live in Swindon.

[Anonymous Coward]

Collective term for people from Swindon

You forgot Swindonistas.

[Piro]

@Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

I lived there for 4 years. Yes, it's a shithole.

[IndianaJ]

City?

Umm... did we get city status? Where's the Uni / Cathedral / Other stuff that qualifies this place as anything other than urban sprawl?

[Havin_it]

@Aristotle's etc. RE They could offer...

Well, please yourself. Perhaps you could pass them my details?

[Anonymous Coward]

sorry

I thought you said W. I. fi

[Anonymous Coward]

Protected from eavesdropping? No.

"The partners say the networking will be WPA encrypted, which will protect Swindonians' communications from eavesdropping."

Presumably the WPA key for this public network will be public, so anybody with the key will be able to connect, and since they all share the same key everyone on the network will be able to see everyone else's packets.

[TeeCee]

@Piro

On thing worth doing, drive there and go round the Magic Roundabout a few times.

This has two advantages. One, you get to play silly B's* and two, you get to stay in the car so it's easy to go somewhere interesting** when the novelty wears off.

*Actually I prefer the Hemel one (the "Spotty Pudding"). It has six mini-roundabouts round it rather than five and lacks the detailed signposting that the Swindon one has, making it even more puzzling when you hit it the first time.

**i.e. not in Swindon.

[GeoffH]

What a load of Moaners

What's it with you lot. Having lived near Swindon for the best part of 25 years I have found it to be a fine town. Good shopping, many hiTech companies have their HQs here. Honda with its superb Civic and Jazz just down the road. Incidentally I live in the part of Swindon that is due to get the WiFi first in the next few weeks.

[ShaggyDoggy]

Huh ?

As a Swindon resident I must say that I've heard zero about this until I read it here.

So 0/10 to SBC for publicity. This is a good rating for them BTW

And our Magic Roundabout may have one less mini than the Hemel one, but it's BIGGER and BETTER so there mwerrr

[EnricoSuarve]

3 Strikes and they're out!!!

If Mandelsson and chums get their way exactly how long is it going to take to have the entire of Swindon kicked off the internet for downloading?

My bet is not very...

[Francis Offord]

Indecision

in your article you are, seemingly, undecided as to the means of address towards the inhabitants of Swindon. Referring to them variously as Swindoners, Swindonites and Swindonians. May I, as a purely personal viewpoint from 1966, when I was based at RAF South Cerney suggest "Swindlers"?