Calls for towns to benefit from rollout of free wi-fi
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That was the call from Inverness MP Drew Hendry after Highland Council announced a further roll-out of the free wi-fi service introduced to parts of the city centre at the end of last year.
One of the first projects funded through the Inverness and Highland City-Region Deal, Ness Wifi currently provides coverage for the Victorian Market and surrounding streets to Falcon Square.
The second phase of the project will now see that coverage extended across the city centre, reaching out as far as Eden Court and the Northern Meeting Park by the end of the summer.
The first phase of the project has seen around 500 people a week logging in to use the free service.
Provost Helen Carmichael welcomed news of the rollout, insisting it would be "enormously useful" to businesses, residents, students and also tourists.
"Fast and efficient internet access is essential to modern life and the initiative will truly make Inverness a ‘digital city’, encouraging further visitors and businesses to the area," she said.
However Mr Hendry feels the rollout isn’t yet going far enough and has written to the council asking that it be extended to both Nairn and Aviemore as soon as possible.
"City Region Deal funding must support business development in our towns as well as in the city, and there can be no better way of achieving this than supporting our growing tourism sector," he said.
Calling for the extension to Nairn and Aviemore to be made "as a matter of priority" he added: "The contribution both towns make to our tourism economy cannot be underestimated.
"Nairn is fast becoming a must-do golf tourism destination, with Aviemore already world-renowned for its winter sports offering."
And he said: "In the future, I would also like to see this project extend further to our other Highland tourist hotspots, like Loch Ness and Fort Augustus.
"Whilst I appreciate the geography presents some challenges these can be overcome and our main rural centres should not be ruled out from the project."
David Richardson, development manager for the Highlands and Islands with the Federation of Small Businesses agreed.
"Installing free wi-fi in tourism host spots, and especially those lacking visitor information centres in remoter, more fragile areas, could do a great deal to boost local economies," he said.
"In making it far easier for visitors to discover all that there is to see and do in the vicinity it would encourage longer stays, the spending of more money, and greater visitor satisfaction.
""This in turn would encourage the use of social media to recommend our region and its businesses to others."
Pointing to a recent study that showed the Highlands had the third worst broadband speeds in the country, however, he said there had to be what he called "an innovative suite of solutions" to improve the whole area of digital connectivity across the region.
He said that "inevitably" meant the need for more investment in broadband and mobile coverage.
A spokeswoman for Highland Council said work is currently underway to identify funding and to prioritise towns with higher tourism and local demand for greater wi-fi availability.
Further information would be available by the autumn she added.
