At an additional meeting of the Waitaki District Council on Tuesday, councillors voted in favour of offering free public Wi-Fi in the Oamaru Harbour area, Omarama and Palmerston.
The council’s original vision was to work with existing operators and providers to establish free Wi-Fi in each community along the Alps 2 Ocean cycle trail, and then to all the smaller communities in the Waitaki district.
However, that had proven too difficult, so the council would start with a limited roll-out, performance, audit and risk committee chairman Colin Wollstein said.
"[It’s] a smaller catchment area than we had originally planned, but the cost of doing it further was more than the budget, so we have to do what we can at the present time," Cr Wollstein said.
"Hopefully, that’s a start on the process and council is going to look at extending it in the future — it’s better to start than delay any longer."
Costs for implementation — $30,200 in Oamaru and $9200 in Palmerston and Omarama — and the first year of operation — $4500 in Oamaru, and $2600 in Palmerston and Omarama — were included in the council’s 2021 annual plan.
The council hoped to start installing the transmitters in October, but it could take up to six months for them to be fully functional, Cr Wollstein said.
The Covid-19 lockdown had highlighted the importance of access to good Wi-Fi in the district, Cr Melanie Tavendale said.
The free Wi-Fi project would help more Waitaki residents access the internet. It would also help with the district’s economic resilience and development post-lockdown by promoting businesses and activities to residents, as well as tourists, who would have messages channelled to them when they connected, Cr Tavendale said.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher was pleased to see the project progress.
"Council has been talking about this for the past five years or more, but it didn’t happen due to competing priorities," he said.
"If we are able to work with others to expand the network more quickly, then we welcome that opportunity."
