North Solihull council tenants are to get free wireless broadband - straight from their electrical socket.
CI-Net has teamed up with Solihull Community Housing to offer internet broadband services using CI-Net's 'leased lines in the sky' RedKite wireless connectivity service, which is also being used at the Olympic Park in Stratford, London.
CI-Net's Redkite wireless connectivity service uses Pre-Wimax radio signals to deliver high speed, symmetrical broadband without physical telecoms lines.
The technical consultant will provide council tenants with free or subsidised internet access via a specially designed connector unit, which operates like a modem. These can be plugged into three-pin electrical plug sockets and provide wireless connectivity.
As part of CI-Net's plan, an existing RedKite radio base station located five miles away in nearby Yardley will send a broadband signal to a receiver located on the roof of one of the council buildings.
Head of IT at Solihull Community Housing Chris Deery hopes the new initiative will help to bridge the digital divide among its residence via minimal engineering work using CI-Net's expertise.
"One of our technical challenges was finding a low cost, low maintenance, reliable way of providing internet connectivity.
"We wanted to minimize the civil engineering work required to deliver broadband to the multi-storey buildings, as well avoid causing disruption to individual tenants during implementation. RedKite allows a faster deployment across the sites, greater flexibility and actively reduces the need for civil engineering," said Deery.
