WLAN on the Donauinsel

Vienna’s Danube Island Recreation Area will become an island of connectivity, with wireless internet available beginning some time in 2011.

According to the Austrian daily Österreich, the city’s coalition of the Greens and the Socialists (SPÖ) are pushing to set up a wireless local area network (WLAN) on the Donau Insel to be used free of charge. The driving force behind the proposition is the Green Party, that wants to have the internet up and running by spring/summer 2012.

The Donauinsel is a man-made 21 kilometer long patch of land, created as an anti-flood measure and developed into a multi-use recreation center that has become an attraction for city dwellers to do sports, barbeque or simply relax along the water’s edge.

The initiative to provide free internet in Austria’s capital is an extension to ever-more widespread availability in locations and venues across the city. Bistros, pubs and other locations in Vienna already provide the service free of charge, but the Austrian Peoples Party (ÖVP) has taken it further and proposing to have free WLAN in buses, trams and on the underground (U-Bahn).

Elsewhere in Austria, Salzburg has already established a citywide internet network. The installment of WLAN on the Donauinsel would be the most ambitious proposition so far concerning Vienna’s connectivity.