Monaghan Town Free Wifi extended

As preparations continue for the blues festival at the weekend, Monaghan County Council has just completed the latest phase of its Monaghan Town wifi project in conjunction with Magnet Networks. In the past year, Magnet networks have installed 9 wifi units in two phases throughout Monaghan Town to offer a free wifi network to all visitors to the town. This free wifi will be available to all visitors to the town throughout the weekend for the festival.

Philip Clapperton, Director of Regional Sales on behalf of Magnet Networks explains that this is part of a large project to deliver free wifi to a number of significant towns across the country, including Monaghan, Westport, Carrick on Shannon and Sligo. He adds: “With each access point offering a high quality signal across a range of up to 150 metres, this allows users and visitors to each town free, safe internet access. Magnet Networks also hope to engage with local businesses to see about advertising special offers from Monaghan and other commercial offerings of interest to consumers. To join the network, users need to either add a few simple details and email address, or connect via Facebook. Following this users can then opt in to receive the special offers available from these businesses.

This project has been a collaboration between local business owners who have agreed to host the equipment required for the wifi network in order to help promote business and tourism within the town. The initial infrastructure was installed in Summer 2018, but in recent weeks, this has now been extended to cover the area around Peters Lake. Earlier in the Summer, the wifi network was extended along the full length of Dublin St. as far as Old Cross Square. Currently, the wifi network extends along Park St. from Rocks Stationery shop to Monaghan Museum; along the back of Glaslough St. car park (beside Peters Lake). It also covers the area from the Courthouse to the Diamond, extending on along both Glaslough St. and Dublin St. as far as Old Cross Square.

This project has been delivered by Monaghan Municipal District, together with County Broadband Officer, John McArdle. He comments: “Monaghan County Council is committed to promoting the use of broadband and free wifi wherever possible. We have had free wifi available within all five of our towns since 2017, and this complements the services on offer through our public libraries with free internet access for users with their own phones or tablets, together with tablets and PCs available for use within each library branch. It demonstrates our commitment to offering free and accessible wifi to visitors as part of our efforts to enhance the facilities available within our town centres.”