Linköping WiFi: one city-wide network for citizens, visitors and smart city services

We shine a spotlight on how a shared public WiFi infrastructure became a genuine city platform connecting residents, empowering local businesses and contributing to Linköping's "City Center of the Year 2018" award.

Linköping has worked for many years to build an attractive city to visit, work and live in. As one of Sweden's largest university cities, it must meet the expectations of students, citizens and visitors alike. A key part of that ambition was a comprehensive City WiFi network: high-capacity, multipurpose connectivity offering classic wireless internet access, but also serving as a technical platform for WiFi analytics, M2M, IoT and other smart city services. Wifirst was appointed as the WiFi provider and long-term business partner.

The challenge: one network, many different needs

• A multipurpose platform: the city needed far more than guest internet — a single infrastructure able to carry public access, WiFi tracking, M2M, IoT and future smart city services.
• Many stakeholders, many messages: the city wants to give citizens easy access to public services and news, while camping sites, museums, shopping malls and tourist attractions each want to promote their own business, depending on time and place.
• Cost efficiency: duplicating networks for every venue and organisation was not an option — the community needed one shared, cost-efficient infrastructure.
• Coverage everywhere: from outdoor squares and shopping streets to indoor venues such as the congress centre, libraries, sport arenas, schools and elderly housing.

The solution: a community WiFi model built to grow

A common wireless fibre infrastructure

Linköping WiFi is a wireless fibre network established in cooperation with the local fibre operator Utsikt Bredband, owned by the energy company. The same WiFi service can be established anywhere in the community, and the network is constantly evolving as new sites and needs appear. Today more than one hundred outdoor access points cover areas in and around Linköping, complemented by indoor WiFi in public spaces.

A community business model

Any local stakeholder can join Linköping WiFi and enable a qualified WiFi service for their own business. The community then cooperates in building one common network in a very cost-efficient way — while each business keeps its own customised approach and communication through the captive portal.

An overlay on existing hardware

Where investments in WiFi hardware had already been made, Linköping WiFi is published as an overlay on the existing networks. Guests get exactly the same experience regardless of the underlying platform — the approach used at the Linköping Congress & Conference Center, elderly housing, libraries, sport arenas and primary schools.

Visitor analytics for the city centre

The city centre organisation, Linköping Innersta, and its stakeholders wanted to understand where and how visitors moved around the city centre. A WiFi tracking service was implemented on top of the existing network, giving the organisation invaluable business information in real time through a dedicated dashboard showing visitor flow in specific areas.

WiFi for events and seasonal needs

The same platform also serves temporary purposes. When the national Swedish Radio held its annual event in Linköping, extra public WiFi was rolled out for the occasion. And when Sweden's largest construction project — the Göta Kanal renovation — needed WiFi for its guest harbour at Bergs Slussar outside Linköping, the network extended there too.

The result: an award-winning city platform

In 2018, Linköping was named City Center of the Year, recognising an extensive programme of work carried out through a public-private partnership between many stakeholders. The vision — inspiring the city audience with attractive meeting places, good food and excellent services throughout the community — was made possible in part by the qualified City WiFi network and the visitor analytics it delivers.

One shared network, one cost-efficient investment — and every stakeholder, from museums to shopping malls, communicating with visitors in their own way.

Beyond the deployment, Wifirst continues to operate and develop the network as a long-term partner, adding new sites and services as the city's needs evolve.