World Wi-Fi Day is a global celebration of Wi-Fi taking place on June 20th each year to help promote digital inclusion. Over the past year there have been over 100,000 connections to Dublin City Council’s WIFI4EU service – a free Wi-Fi service running in 35 locations across parks, libraries and community centres in partnership with Virgin Media Business. Wifi4EU was born out of an initiative supported by the European Commission to provide free Wi-Fi access in public spaces across Europe. Dublin City Council is one of the many local authorities in Ireland supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development to improve digital connectivity.
In 2019, Dublin City Council invited the public to suggest locations where the Wi-Fi hotspots would be most beneficial to the community, resulting in over 50 applications to access the Wifi4EU and selecting sites where they can support community, residents and tourists. The installation of Wi-Fi hotspots in these public areas has helped bridge the digital divide, ensuring that residents including visitors can enjoy the benefits of free internet connectivity. Over 40TB of data has been used over the past year demonstrating the value of the network!
For the City of Dublin Education and Training Board (CDTEB) who are providing computer lessons for adults at the Artane Coolock Family Resource Centre the Wif4EU initiative has been really beneficial
“We are delighted and relieved that we have Wi-Fi that won’t crash or collapse during use.
Prior to using the service the centre had to rely on a booster for connectivity so this is a big improvement!”
Other sites have been using the Wi-Fi to support coding lessons for kids and training courses for older people.
