Search begins for contractor to help take service from public beta to live
The Government Digital Service (GDS) is laying plans to take its Gov Wifi service beyond the public beta phase and increase the number of public sector users.
It has begun to look for a contractor for a 12-month programme to make it a fully live service, extending it to public sector buildings across the country.
The service, which went into public beta early last year, provides an automatic Wi-Fi sign-in for government buildings with cloud based authentication, enabling users to access networks as they move between sites.
It is currently used by more than 70 organisations in over 300 locations, but the original business case – developed by the Common Technology Services team in GDS – involved benefits that a need a wider range of users.
The aim is for the contractor to begin work on the programme by mid-March.
An alternative Wi-Fi access service named govroam has been launched by higher education sector digital services provider Jisc. It has previously indicated that it has been working with GDS and that the two initiatives are complementary rather than in competition with each other.
Image from GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0