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Free wireless internet is being provided by Parnell's local business organisation to encourage more activity in the area.
It is the first of what is likely to be many other similar projects around the country.
Parnell Mainstreet will launch the free wireless service called Parnell Wireless, using Wi-Fi
technology, this week. The service will be available on Parnell Rd and will allow anyone who has a laptop or personal device with wireless internet capability to log on to the internet free.
Parnell Mainstreet manager Debbie Harkness said the project, which cost just under $10,000, was the first free wireless network in such circumstances in New Zealand and would encourage business in Parnell.
With around 90 per cent of laptops sold now able to connect to Wi-Fi networks, the Parnell venture and other similar projects are expected to flourish.
Peter Macauley, former program manager for the Government's Digital Strategy, said the Parnell project was part of an emerging national trend for community organisations to set up wireless networks to complement existing broadband networks.
"You are going to see an awful lot of wireless networks set up," said Macauley, who is still involved in setting up wireless network projects for local councils.
"It is exciting when a bunch of business people get together and decide that broadband connectivity is an issue for their customers, not just for their businesses, and decide to provide it. That shows a different view of the world from what we have had."
Macauley said the extent to which organisations could provide wireless networks free of charge before they became bogged down with traffic remained an issue - because the busier they were, the lower the performance.
Dylan Reeve, of BunkerMedia, who set up the network for Parnell Mainstreet, said it was fantastic that the wireless internet was available.
Infrastructure operator CityLink's subsidiary, CafeNet, provides hot spots - a small area of wireless internet for use as in a cafe - around Auckland and Wellington.
Macauley said the Waitakere City Council had Government funding to provide wireless services where they did not exist or were too expensive to access.
Wireless network software specialist RoamAD's chief executive, Martyn Levy, said it supplied the software for the first Wi-Fi mesh network in Auckland. Since then, its technology had been deployed in Europe, the United States, Asia, Australia and the Caribbean.
