Newtown could soon be a "Smart Town"

A voluntary "digital champion" is needed to help support a project bringing WiFi to the town centre.

Newtown Town Council is currently working with Powys County Council to bring the managed WiFi system into the area as part of a five year funded scheme through Shared Prosperity Funding.

The project will also help the town council, businesses, and other organisations to understand how many visitors come to the town and what they do and visit.

It would mean visitors, residents, and others could access the WiFi with their devices while visiting the town centre.

Data will also be collected through the system to enable details about the number of visitors in the town, where they visit and other information. 

However, it cannot identify the individual using the system or what they are looking at.

A report to the town council's Economy and Environment Committee states: "The system uses Presence Analytics (there's a good you tube video about PA if you're interested) to gather data about visitor numbers and Wi-Fi usage.

"The system detects and recognises mobile devices so long as they are
Wi-Fi enabled. So, if someone walks into town and has a mobile phone with them that has Wi-Fi capacity turned on, the system will detect it. The system knows the difference between mobile devices (but cannot identify people)."

It added:  Consequently, without the person even needing to log onto the town Wi-Fi, the system detects that device and records it. It can therefore count the number of mobile devices it sees, how long they were there,
how frequently they visited, and if they logged onto the Wi-Fi what they did in terms of what applications they used (not websites visited).

"The purpose of this data is for eg events can see how many people came, were they local or visitors (did the system know the mobile device or did it detect new ones). Shops will know the average length of time people stay in town and if their sales techniques and offers are increasing dwell time."

Local property owners and businesses would be asked to be involved through the positioning of routers and the use of their broadband connections.

The town council committee was told that a champion would be needed to undertake some of this work.

Whilst Powys County Council will support the installation of the project, the running of the whole system itself is reliant on a Digital Champion.

"This will be a nominated person within the Town who is willing to offer the assistance needed to make the Town Centre Wi-Fi a success for the Town Council, businesses, and all stakeholders. The Digital Champion will be the main contact for all stakeholders. This person does not have to
sit within the Town Council."

The town council will consider the overall project at another meeting.

Cllr Peter Lewington said the scheme "could be as big or small as we like."