Students are now able to connect to eduroam WiFi in York’s city centre following the first phase of a joint project between the university and local council.
The new WiFi provision runs off the same network used on campus, so devices already set up for campus browsing should automatically connect to WiFi hotspots in town.
The University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Koen Lamberts, said: “This is a fantastic development that demonstrates how we can achieve great benefits for both York and the University by working in partnership with the Council.”
Eduroam is a global roaming service, specifically for students and academics, and enables users to access the internet at higher education institutions around the world.
This means visitors from other institutions will be able to access the WiFi in York too.
The name eduroam comes from combining the words ‘education’ and ‘roaming’.
Roy Grant, Head of ICT at City of York Council said: “The new wifi will benefit thousands of students across the city and it’s great to see our partnership work with the University of York benefiting students.
“The expansion of CityConnect WiFi is progressing at pace also, which will benefit residents and visitors as free wifi rolls out to campuses across the city in the coming months.”
The “low cost project” is jointly-funded by the University of York and City of York Council, and aims to eventually extend CityConnect WiFi to the campus.
The free CityConnect WiFi service launched in July last year and formed part of York’s goal to become the one of the best connected cities in Europe.