2Degrees and CityLink has partnered to provide Wi-Fi access to the former’s customers in Wellington’s CBD area.
The telco player is enabling the service by tapping into CityLink’s recently launched Wholesale Wi-Fi service, which is targeted at event centres, stadiums, malls and telco players, to help them provide extended connectivity.
According to 2Degrees, the service will be offered initially on a trial basis, and if successful, will be used as a blueprint for similar Wi-Fi offerings in other parts of the country.
The CityLink-2Degrees Wifi zone will include the Wellington Golden Mile and beyond, extending from Courtenay Place, Manners Street, Willis Street, Lambton Quay, Waterloo Quay, Customhouse Quay, Jervois Quay, Cable Street and important landmarks like Westpac Stadium, Wellington Railway Station, Wellington Cable Car Terminals, Wellington Zoo, ASB Sports Centre and TSB Arena.
2degrees CEO Stewart Sherriff said “The trial is a chance to explore the potential benefits Wi-Fi can provide to not only to our customers, but also our network. With exponential data growth on our network every year, Wi-Fi is becoming a logical option for mobile networks to explore further.”
“Working with an established provider like CityLink who already has a Wi-Fi presence across the Wellington CBD makes a potential commercial offering a lot easier to establish,” he said.
CityLink CEO Nick Willis said, “Wi-Fi has matured into a piece of core infrastructure for businesses, transport and event centres, universities, telecommunication companies as well as cities. CityLink has provided numerous custom high capacity Wi-Fi networks in these categories.”
“CityLink is best positioned to provide plug and play solutions for high quality Wi-Fi Zones anywhere in New Zealand,” said Willis.
CityLink, which has been providing Wi-Fi hotspots in NZ since 2002, launched cbdfree in 2011 with the support of Wellington City Council. According to the company, cbdfree network plays host to around 75,000 unique users every month.
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