Free public Wi-Fi available in downtown Milford

The Riverwalk area now has free public Wi-Fi available

The City of Milford announced recently that a project that had been two years in the making was now operational. The Riverwalk Public Wi-Fi, powered by Comcast and Cisco Meraki access points, the free Wi-Fi, named “Milford-Free,” allows individuals to stay connected for various activities such as e-commerce, checking emails, browsing the web and completing homework. It will also be beneficial to vendors during the Riverwalk Farmer’s Market and festivals throughout town.

“The pilot program is a significant milestone for the City of Milford,” Bill Pettigrew, IT Director, said. “After conducting the comprehensive study of WIFI coverage across the city, we realized the potential to improve connectivity in key areas like the Riverwalk. This project has been in the works for over two years, and we are thrilled to finally bring it to fruition.”

According to Pettigrew, most of the design work was done by city staff which brought it in significantly under budget. The city hopes this promotes more outdoor activity as children can complete homework at the park or at the playground. Adults will be able to stay connected while playing pickleball, eating lunch downtown or relaxing on a bench in the parks.

“If you start walking away from the pickleball area, the signal may weaken but it will eventually be stronger when the access points are mounted,” Pettigrew said. “Over the weekend, during the Riverwalk Festival, 75 employees tested the Wi-Fi which was password protected and it worked well.”

At a recent council meeting, Councilwoman Madula Kalesis asked how many people the Wi-Fi could support.

“So, it’s all going to be based on who’s actually utilizing it, who’s on Wi Fi versus their cellular. I mean, to be honest, if we had 5,000 in there, it will bog down. We did not put it on a fiber network to save cost. And this is a preliminary, so we’re going to see what usage we’re getting,” Pettigrew said. “But I would say, you have a couple 100 people in their area, I don’t think it should be any problem whatsoever. If you have 5,000 and they’re all on that Wi-Fi, you will see a little bit of a speed issue. And if council wants a budget for something faster next year or continuing on, we could do that, but we’re considering this a trial to see exactly what kind of data usage we need. But right now, it’s something that we’re going to be expanding upon.”

Councilwoman Kalesis then asked if Pettigrew would be keeping data on how many people used it in a year. Pettigrew responded that they could see who logged on and what type of device they were using. Once they started collecting data it would provide them with more information about the system. He explained that Milford is currently running at the same speed Smyrna had but festivals in Milford might be a little larger and it would be some time before they saw where boosts were needed.

“We are so thankful to the City of Milford for Wi-Fi downtown in the park,” Sara LeBright, Executive Director of Downtown Milford, Inc., said. “This will be instrumental in helping our Riverwalk Farmer’s Market flourish and be able to have speedy checkouts for their customers and our community. I absolutely love all the positive things I see happening in downtown Milford.

The city is already working on Phase 2 of the project to expand the coverage throughout the Riverwalk,