Free Wi-Fi comes to the Energy Centre

For the convenience of its patrons and visitors, the Cold Lake Energy Centre now offers free Wi-Fi for the public. 

There has been Wi-Fi available in the past, but it required special passwords and was generally reserved for special events only. The City of Cold Lake invested in a new open network system which provides visitors with easy access and no password is required. 

Connecting is simply a matter of selecting COCL-Public from the Wi-Fi feature on your mobile device and following the prompts. Once the terms and conditions have been agreed to, access to the network will be available for the next 12 hours. After the 12-hour limit, patrons wanting continued access must sign in again. 

The new system has been tested to ensure that the open network system can reach devices throughout the majority of the facility.

This public network was made possible by the installation of fiber optics that connects several city facilities. Administration has taken advantage of roadwork or any other underground municipal infrastructure work see if conduit for fiber optic cables can be installed at the same time. 

This approach reduces the overall cost of building the city’s fiber optic network by reducing the need for dedicated trenching or directional drilling operations to install the fiber-optic conduit and cable. 

“It’s great to see city departments working together to find cooperative, forward thinking approaches when it comes to a wide variety of infrastructure projects,” Mayor Craig Copeland said. 

“Our community benefits greatly from staff who take pride in their work and are dedicated to providing excellent, cost-effective services. The end result in this case, is a service we know will be appreciated by our Energy Centre users.” 

To learn more about the new Wi-Fi system, how to access it, and to preview the terms and conditions, please visit www.coldlake.com/energycentre.