Bay's wi-fi king eager to expand

NOW chief executive Hamish White pictured at the NOW head office. PHOTO/GLENN TAYLOR

The Napier City Council's city development committee this week approved

spending $130,000 on five new free wi-fi hotspots in a bid to make Napier more

tourist-friendly. Hawke's Bay Today looks at the availability of free wi-fi in the

region and assesses whether it is as widespread as it could or should be.

Hamish White talks about wi-fi with alarming enthusiasm.

He is the chief executive of NOW, an aggressive Napier-born telecommunications company which has blanketed the region with public wi-fi - without the assistance of public funds.

Founded in 2002 as rural wireless broadband company "Airnet," NOW provides more than 70 wi-fi access points across Hawke's Bay.

Targeting dining and leisure areas, the access points are intended for NOW customers to access their data when they're out and about, but also offer an hour's free usage per day to the general public.

"We just went ahead off our own back" Mr White says of the conquest.

His head office is still based in Onekawa and, recently, two new offices sprang up in Wellington and Bay of Plenty.

His staff has grown from nine to 35 in the past two years.

But he isn't satisfied.

"I'd like to see a regionwide [wi-fi] collaboration between all the councils.

"I think we could do phenomenal things. We could be the envy of the whole country."

Mr White lists his access points like captured territories.

They exist throughout Hawke's Bay Hospital. There are 15 in Havelock North, 10 in Ahuriri and 50 in Napier CBD. Motels host the balance of NOW's 120 wi-fi hot spots.

These operate alongside 13 Napier CBD access points provided by local telecommunications company Revolutionz, which are partly funded by Napier City Council. So there are 63 access points in Napier CBD.

Hastings CBD hosts 25 provided by NOW. Hastings City Business Association manager Susan McDade says she hopes to see Hastings wi-fi grow.

"We are talking to NOW about extending this area. I would love to see Hastings become a much more high tech smart city CBD and wi-fi is definitely part of this vision. "I would like to see wi-fi available throughout the entire CBD core."

Mr White confirms there's "definitely a dialogue" happening, but extending the area would require the Hastings District Council to foot some of the bill.

"We're looking for a public-private partnership."

Unfortunately, the council isn't biting.

Council group manager corporate and customer service Mike Maguire says the council is "relatively comfortable" with the current wi-fi system and "has no plans at this stage to extend the service".

Meanwhile, Napier CBD's network, though it dwarfs Hastings', has its own shortcomings. A recent report by council corporate IT manager Andrew Siddles recommended councillors spend $130,000 to fund five new hotspots after finding myriad problems with the current network, including poor signal strength.

Mr White describes Napier CBD's wi-fi as "sufficient," but can't help but hint at the beguiling potential for "seamless coverage".

" ... But you'd need a whole lot more infrastructure."

Mr White estimates seamless wi-fi coverage for Napier CBD would cost the council about $250,000 - which it is currently unwilling to fork out.

A council spokeswoman says it is more intent on providing a setting for wi-fi consumption to take place.

"We're not supporting individual providers, instead we propose to create an environment in the hotspot zones that is appealing to all providers.

"The hotspot model depends on telecommunications companies continuing to deliver wi-fi services, and focuses council efforts on urban design such as seating, shade and signage."

These comments seem reminiscent of Mr Siddles' report, which laments with an air of sandbox megalomania: "... although the wi-fi is encouraging people to linger in the city centre, they tend to do so on the kerbside rather than in our parks and courtyards."

Further south, Central Hawke's Bay District Council chief executive John Freeman says there is free wi-fi available at the Waipukurau and Waipawa public libraries.

And farther north, the town of Wairoa has cleverly crafted a unique wi-fi solution for its own compact CBD.

Wairoa District Council corporate services manager James Baty talks about "Wairoa wi-fi" with unrestrained pride - and rightly so.

Introduced during the Rugby World Cup in 2011, it consists of two broadband base stations which "saturate" a 1.5km stretch of the town's main road with free wi-fi.

The network cost $9000 to set up and cost about $1500 a year to run.

Its traffic has skyrocketed from 30,000 megabytes in its first month to more than one million megabytes this month.