O-NET, Olds' own telecommunications service, plans to expand public Wi-Fi spots to more locations throughout the community this year.
The O-NET public Wi-Fi network enables anyone with a wireless-enabled device to connect to the Internet for free. It allows users to surf the web, email or stream video from anywhere where there's a hotspot.
Currently, residents and visitors can access more than 80 hotspot locations in Olds via O-NET. Over the past month or so, at least 10,143 people have connected to the network.
According to O-NET business development director Nathan Kusiek, more than 150 access points have been installed for those locations.
“Netflix, Facebook and Youtube make up for over 50 per cent of usage,” an O-NET news release says.
O-NET started installing public hotspots in 2013. The objective was to enable everyone in Olds to be able to make use of its services.
The first stage of deployment was focused on installing hotspots in public waiting rooms, restaurants and anywhere that people gathered.
In 2015, the Olds Institute and Mountain View Power partnered with O-NET to extend the network outdoors. That enabled Wi-Fi coverage to be extended to parks, Uptowne Olds and along Highway 27. Fifteen access points were created.
Kusiek says the plan now is to improve the coverage in Cornerstone as well as the north end of Highway 2A and by the radio station.
“And then, when we've got really the business covered and we're going to start developing the strategy to try to get it into more green spaces: parks, walking paths and then residential areas,” he says.
About four months ago, O-NET installed Wi-Fi at Olds Hospital and Care Centre.
That's been a great success story, Kusiek says.
“It was a two-year process to get Wi-Fi into the hospital. It was something that they had never allowed before,” he says.
Twenty-three Wi-Fi hotspots were installed there.
“The day it was installed we had something like 300 people connect,” Kusiek says. “Instantly they were using Netflix and Youtube and everything they could, so it seems like the patients are enjoying it.”
In the last month or so, at least 1,380 unique devices have been connected to that network.
O-NET has released a map of all public Wi-Fi hotspots throughout Olds. For information on how to access it via Google, contact Kusiek.
"It was a two-year process to get Wi-Fi into the hospital. It was something that they had never allowed before." NATHAN KUSIEK DIRECTOR, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTO-NET
