Norfolk Open Link
Norfolk Open Link is a £1.35 million two-year pilot project, operational from July 2006, to evaluate the impact mobile technology could have on economic development in Norfolk and the delivery of public sector services.

Norfolk Open Link has been developed by Norfolk County Council with South Norfolk Council and is fully funded by the East of England Development Agency.

Norfolk Open Link is the largest community wireless broadband network of this type in the UK .

It is the only network in the UK of this type that provides free internet access for public sector employees, the business community and the general public.

The network covers a large area of Norwich city centre and key locations to the east and west of the city.

It is currently available in the City Centre:  The Forum, Chapelfield Gardens, Hay Hill, Gentlemen's Walk, Gaol Hill and Theatre Street.

More than 200 small aerials have been fixed to existing street furniture and buildings to create the network, with the main transmitter on top of County Hall. This is the first large scale use of street furniture in a wireless network.

Anyone with a wireless enabled laptop, personal digital assistant (PDA) and internet mobile phone can use the network free of charge.

In the coming months more rural locations in the South Norfolk District will be added to the network, making it the first in the UK to include both rural and urban locations.

The network has been developed by Norfolk County Council, in partnership with Norwich City Council, South Norfolk District Council, University of East Anglia (UEA), Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Norfolk Constabulary , Norwich City College and The Forum Trust.

Public Sector

The aim is to show how all public sector organisations - Health Services, Education Services, Social Services, Norfolk Constabulary, Norfolk Fire Service and public transport can benefit from and improve their effectiveness by using  a shared wireless based network. A series of practical projects will be developed to explore this in detail for each organisation.

Business & Public

Norfolk Open Link will encourage greater public sector collaboration, as none of the services could individually have the capability to install and operate a network on this scale.

Norfolk Open Link will enable more home and mobile working giving staff the opportunity to access information and office systems on the move.

Public sector users will connect to the network at one megabit per second (1mbps). This is a higher speed than other users due to the operational requirements of the applications that will be developed.

The project gives small and medium sized Norwich businesses and the general public the chance to trial a wireless system free of charge.

Free internet access is available within the Norfolk Open Link area using wireless enabled laptops, personal digital assistants (PDA) and internet mobile phones.

Norfolk Open Link is not allowed to compete with commercial wireless services, so the access speed for businesses and the general public has been set at 256 kilobits per second (256 kbs). Each time a user accepts the terms and conditions, they will have an hour long session.