This is a bit of a rant about Brisbane City Council’s free wi-fi in Wynnum. There’s sort of good news and sort of bad news.
The good news is (drum roll) – the Brisbane City Council’s free wi-fi actually works now. Ever since it was installed many years ago it has never worked (at least the WynnumCentral team has never been able to log on to it) and although we’ve asked the question, we’ve never heard from anybody who’s actually been able to use it successfully. In fact it has been more of a hindrance than a help (see below). Which brings us to the bad news.
The bad news is that – when, back then, the idea of a free wi-fi network in Wynnum was floated (originally by WynnumCentral) – free wi-fi would have been a new, useful thing. It would have enabled smart device users to find out information on the go, plus it would have given the WynnumCentral project valuable information on the popularity of the various events that were hosted in the shopping precinct, like the markets and festivals.
It – unfortunately – ended up being more of a hindrance, because the free wi-fi network was one of the networks ‘remembered’ in our phones and so it would connect automatically, only for there to be no internet connection at all, and we’d end up wondering why apps, the internet etc. weren’t working. The only reason we kept the connection in our phones was on the off chance it might spring back to life!
Well the good news is – it works now. The bad news is, the technology has moved on and people no longer really need a free wifi network. Most people have got 4G enabled devices with generous data allowances and much faster connection speeds using 4G than the Brisbane free wi-fi network can provide. Plus of course it’s more secure to use your own 4G connection.
Moral of the story – technology moves very quickly and what might have seemed a good idea a few years ago probably isn’t any more.
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