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How Derby City Council Use CT WiFi

Jo manages a network of around 200 Meraki access points around Derby. He uses the CT WiFi captive portal and the analytics platform which gives him full ownership and control over his Wi-Fi network.

He talks to us about why it was important Derby City council installed an open Wi-Fi network which the council owned rather than let a carrier install a network for them.

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Traditionally carriers like The Cloud or Virgin would install a Wi-Fi network for low or no cost. In some cases they’ll even pay the businesses to install and run the Wi-Fi network for them. This guarantees they own the data collated from the Wi-Fi network. Unless the business makes an agreement with the carrier, then they don’t have access to this raw and valuable data. The carriers are free to sell user information such as email addresses to a third party.

Why was it important you had control over the data collated from the city Wi-Fi network?

From a philosophical point of view it was really important. We needed to control what data was recorded and what happened to that data afterwards.

As a local authority we’re offering a public service. The Wi-Fi network is funded by tax payers and offered as a public service. We have a social responsibility to make the Wi-Fi good quality, secure and accessible for all. Presenting the public with a registration form asking for their personal details didn’t seem right and it definitely didn’t make the Wi-Fi free and accessible for all. We’re not a private company. It wasn’t an option.

If any data was collected we needed to be in control of it. If we’d used a carrier Wi-Fi network we wouldn’t know what happened to the public’s personal information. It could be sold onto anyone.

Now you’re in control of your data what value does it have to the council?

The anonymous data that’s collated from the Wi-Fi network opens up doors that are so valuable to us. It’s helping us understanding how the public interact and engage with the city and it’s helping us make decisions on where investment is needed, gaging ROI on regeneration projects and generally shaping the city to be a more enjoyable place to live.

In this way we’re giving back to the public and the data is used for social good rather than just a cold sale.

If we did ever want to sell on the data collated, we have the control and social responsibility to anonymise it and be honest and transparent about the sale. Money would also be ploughed back into the public. If we’d used a carrier, even if they did give us access to the data we wouldn’t be able to do this.

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