Free WIFI up and running in Cavan Town

Cavan Town’s free Wifi for public places is now up and running. The service is aimed at helping businesses, tourism, the general public and designed to create a positive image of the county being a field-leader in Information and Computer Technology (ICT). On a wet and windy Friday afternoon and over several platforms - Facebook, WhatsApp, email and Gmail’s Hangouts - the Celt's Paul Neilan spoke with Kieran Hever, the acting head of IT with the council, over the new 'Cavan Free Wifi’...

The Anglo-Celt began the interview, which doubled as a demonstration, at The Egg Market at 3pm; while Kieran left his work place at the courthouse at the same time.
The areas covered by the Wifi net are The Egg Market, Main Street, Bridge Street, Thomas Ashe Street and Farnham Street at the library and courthouse areas.
For the sake of practicality, Kieran was sent the questions in advance, prepared the answers and sent them while on the move, rather than type while walking - calls were made through Gmail and WhatsApp, video messages were tested through WhatsApp and Facebook.

The Anglo-Celt, sent by WhatsApp from The Egg Market: Where did the idea come from?
Kieran Hever [at the courthouse]: We identified the Wifi service as a good initiative for the wider digital strategy under the Cavan Draft Local Economic and Community Plan 2016-2021. The initiative was fully supported by Mr Tommy Ryan, CEO of Cavan County Council. As well as the benefits of providing free Wifi for tourists and the local community, the service will project a positive image of Cavan Town and show that we, as a county, are proactive in relation to ICT.

AC at Main Street, using Hangouts: Where else in Ireland has done this?
KH at Thomas Ashe Street: There have been recent moves to provide Wi-Fi to the general public in large towns. For example, Dublin City Council have completed a similar scheme to offer free Wi-Fi in Dublin City where they outsourced the service to a private company who build the network and the company then provide a free 0.5Mbs download service, with up to 6Mbs available for a monthly tariff. Our aim in Cavan is to provide a free service with no tiers and easy access for users. Our service at the moment has an average download speed of circa 5MB which we aim to increase to 10MB early next year and then further increase as the town broadband speeds move to the Fibre To The Building (FTTB) speeds from 2017.

AC at the Square, via Facebook: What challenges were involved?
KH at The Blackhorse Inn: “The challenges for this project related to the location and coverage of the service and also buy-in from specific local businesses who would allow us to use their broadband to extend the service around the town. The business buy-in was very important in that we had some specific locations where we needed to host Access Points for a consistent coverage. We met with the Chamber of Commerce and they were very positive about it. From this meeting both the Chamber and Cavan County Council contacted five businesses based on their locations (The Blackhorse Inn, Cavan Travel, Sally West, The Imperial Bar and the Top of the Town bar) and they were all happy to help us build the service for the town.”

AC at Bridge Street via gmail call: Why these particular areas/streets?
KH at Cavan Travel: “Our priority has been to cover Main Street and the side streets; Thomas Ashe Street, Townhall Street and Bridge Street as well as the public areas around the Courthouse/Library, Town Hall and Egg Market. These are the main public areas of the town so these have being our priority. We will analyse usage and see where to go with the service. In the last 24 hours, we have had 630 users on the Wi-Fi network so there is a demand for the service there. We will be putting up signs advertising the service at the main public areas so tourists to the town will know the service is available.”

AC at the Town Hall, via WhatsApp call: How much did it cost/how long did it take to complete?
KH at Thomas Ashe Street: We started the project in late September and completed a soft launch in the middle of November. From then, we have been testing the system and tweaking the service to provide a consistent service. The project cost circa €15,000 and this was funded by the ICT department through operational efficiencies and the re-evaluation of existing contracts.

AC back at The Egg Market, also testing a 10-second video, via WhatsApp: Are there plans to expand it to College Street, where I live?
KH back at the courthouse: We hope to expand the service where there is a demand for it. We will be looking at this in the new year in the hope we can create a quality service.