KL-Wireless clearance for the Barbarossa festivity "Swinging Lautern". Mayor Dr. Klaus Weichel will be opening the Barbarossa festivity "Swinging Lautern" at the Altenhof tonight at 6 pm. He will simultaneously introduce a new service in the center of scientific development that is Kaiserslautern. 17 city hotspots will enable citizens and guests alike to surf the internet for 30 minutes per day free of charge - conveniently using their own smartphone or tablet.
"Nowadays, free Internet access is crucial concerning a city's attractivity. Providing wireless hotspots is an essential and topical addition to our municipal information systems, be it as an additional service for our citizens or as an easy orientation aid for our guests. Residents and tourists rely on this service in the age of smartphones", says Mayour Dr. Klaus Weichel.
Accessing KL-wireless is simple: using a mobile end device, available networks can be displayed and "KL-wireless" can be selected by activating the device's wireless connectivity in its settings. To register, one simply enters the personal mobile phone number, after which a short message containing user name and password is sent. After entering these details, the user is online and can surf the internet for a daily duration of 30 minutes free of charge.
This project was spearheaded by the public services Kaisserslautern, the SWK subsidiary companies Demando and K-net GmbH, the company Pfalzconnect, the Zukunftsregion Westpfalz and the Kaiserslautern city council. The concept and realisation of the wireless public internet access for Kaiserslautern derives from a diploma thesis paper of an SWK employee.
Through the integration of the network "eduroam" by an exchange program with the regional university computation centre of Kaiserslautern University, students, university employees and visiting scientists will henceforth be granted internet access in the central city.
Roughly 1.500 meters of optical fibre cable were inserted in provisioned empty conduit. To establish the hotspots, the city of Kaiserslautern provided access to lamp posts, information steles and public buildings. The hotspots' power supply is ensured by the SWK, connectivity is provided by the SWK subsidiary company K-net GmbH. They will also be organising the network makeup, the internet uplink and the provision of internet traffic. A high level of user security was one of the greatest challenges. A firewall and filters are employed to protect users against attacks. This is what differentiates KL-wireless and other wireless networks.
"Special thanks are owed the Stadtwerke Kaiserslautern, K-net GmbH and the Zukunftsregion Westpfalz for their generous financial support. Through the vast knowledge of the partners, this ambitious project could be put into effect quickly and professionally", the satisfied mayor remarked.
Through the established physical infrastructure, yet another network is to integrated. The municipal services are en route of developing their very own wireless product with a special offer for their ectricity and gas customers. If these customers have already issued a direct debit mandate and registered in the customers' portal, they are entitled to use the wireless city hotspots for transmitting a data volume of up to one gigabyte.
Extending this service for Western Palatinate is being planned, soon free wireless internet access will also be available in Pirmasens, Kusel, Ramstein and so forth.
