Manchester Unveils Plans for City-wide Wireless Broadband Coverage

Manchester City Council has issued a Request for Information &
Comment as the first step in plans to launch a broadband wireless network over Manchester that the Council hopes will eventually cover an area of up to 400 square miles and 2.2 million people.

The network, covering 90% of the Greater Manchester area, would be the largest single city broadband wireless area in Europe and would be as large as all other city based wireless networks in the UK put together. The wireless catchment area would encompass not only central Manchester but also surrounding boroughs including Salford and Tameside.

The initiative is being launched prior to Manchester preparing its bid in
the Government's Digital Challenge Initiative, a national competition that aims to select an area to qualify for up to