Free Wireless Access WIC NZ Ltd is introducing a free wireless service in Dunedin under the Wicked Networks brand. The company has been operating since March 2010 and has over 2300 registered users regularly using the network of around 30 Wi-Fi (802.11N) hotspots across the city.
The service provides a registration-based, advertising-supported portal with high-capacity access to local services and shared Internet capacity upstream.
Wicked Networks will be officially launched by Clare Curran MP at 5:30pm Friday 12th November 2010, at the Centre for Innovation, 87 St David St, Dunedin.
Wicked Networks provides an easy, low-cost means of access to information and services by locals, business users and visitors alike. The coverage, capacity and user base of the service are all scalable at incremental cost. Wicked Networks has grown at the rate of 100 new users per week and delivers around 150GB of monthly traffic.
The Wicked Networks infrastructure provides an open-access platform to support services operated by multiple service providers. WIC NZ maintains robust interconnect arrangements with other local operators for high-capacity data exchange at low cost.
Wicked Networks is used by Otago Polytechnic to extend the range and coverage of their campus wireless network across the city. Wicked Networks is used to support the delivery of augmented reality content in a novel project supported by the Dunedin City Council Industry Project Fund. Wicked Networks welcomes and encourages other operators to adopt the service and willingly engages with any third-party provider wishing to operate differentiated services on the open-access platform.
The service addresses many issues that are commonly encountered for free wi-fi, includin traffic management to reduce or eliminate unacceptable usage and support for “access with payment” voucher codes at designated locations.
The costs of the Wicked Networks service are met by advertising revenue on the login and registration portal pages that appear in a Web browser, and from the interconnect arrangements with third-party providers.
