DAN GRIMMER
18 June 2007 09:21

Bosses of the city's pioneering Wi-Fi network have issued an SOS to try and ensure it doesn't have to be taken down within the next year.

Funding for the controversial project, which allows people to log on to the internet without having to plug their laptops in, will run out within the next 12 months unless Norfolk County Council can find a way to keep it going.

Over the next few months the county council will conduct a study into the £1,35million project to see how it has been used and who by and whether it would be viable for a business plan to be drawn-up to keep the free service running.

It is understood that one option could be to try and keep the service free through having advertising on a home page when people log on.

Another potential is to attract businesses to run the service, which could then be provided for a fee.

The OpenLink project, which is entirely funded by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA), saw more than 200 aerials attached to lamp-posts across the city.

The network covers large parts of the city centre along with County Hall, Bracondale, Carrow Road, the University of East Anglia, Norwich Science Park, Norwich City College and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

Ann Carey, project director for Norfolk OpenLink, said today: “We always knew we only had funding until March 2008.

“The project team will be working with a number of organisations to identify what options we have for the future.

“While the county council is not in the business of subsiding internet services, we will be working with people such as the Department of Trade and Industry to try to find out if there are options which can still achieve what we were trying to do.”

Mrs Carey said they would be looking at how the service has been provided in America, where Wi-Fi is common place in many towns and cities.

She added: “Certain projects are working on the basis where you secure funding through advertising to ensure it is free.

“Part of the challenge is to work the options up into a real business case. But if there is not a business case for it, then it is a risk that it will not carry on.

“We will be doing a lot of consultation exercises over the next few months. People who log on will be asked online questions and we will be using that data to understand what options can be drawn up.”

The project has not been popular with everyone. Earlier this year question marks were raised over its safety when Sir William Stewart, chairman of the Health Protection Agency, appeared on Panorama and called for a review of the health effects of Wi-Fi.

Although his call was based more on the levels of radiation children using Wi-Fi networks in schools after the Panorama programme claimed children using laptops were exposed to three times the radiation emitted by a mobile phone mast, the revelations sparked concern over the OpenLink project.

But bosses at County Hall insisted the transmitters were safe and rated at just 0.1 watts, compared to the average mobile phone handset which emits radiation pulses up to 2W.

Documents released to the Evening News under the Freedom of Information Act show when the scheme was planned the county council were advised to place the transmitters at least 30cms away from people's heads.

Meanwhile, claims the network was introduced by “stealth” have been heightened by documents which revealed there was no consultation with the public at all before the network was put in.

The documents showed EEDA wrote to the county council on May 18, 2005 offering the grants for the system and saying if the council did not say yes within 30 days the offer would lapse.

Just five days later the council's cabinet endorsed the project, even though there had been no public consultation.

Norwich North MP Dr Ian Gibson has previously raised concerns about the lack of consultation over the scheme while Norfolk county councillor Andrew Boswell says he has been contacted by people worried about the proximity of the transmitters to their homes.