Sheffield Free Wi-Fi now available in the Moor Market.

Visitors to the Sheffield Moor Market can now take advantage of free Superfast Internet courtesy of Sheffield Free Wi-Fi. All of the public areas of the Market are covered so users can stay online while shopping, having a coffee with friends or enjoying lunch from one of the many food outlets in the Café.

The service, operated by Idaq Networks, was made fully operational today and means that people using the service can receive download speeds of 20Mb/sec with no data caps. Why use your phone's mobile data allowance when Free Wi-Fi is this good?

Users registered to the service can also stay online when in coverage areas in the rest of the City. Coverage is constantly increasing and users can roam throughout coverage areas without having to repeatedly log in.

Staying safe on Sheffield Free Wi-Fi

Staying safe on Sheffield Free Wi-Fi

There are dangers being online whether you are using your home broadband, your mobile broadband or Sheffield Free Wi-Fi. We thought we would share some tips to help you stay safe while using our service.

Always make sure your device has the most up to date software.

Make sure you only connect to the SSID 'Sheffield-Free-WiFi'.

When you connect there should be no browser warnings. (Make sure you are using up to date software and that the date and time are correct on your device).

Make sure you follow any instructions we provide while you are logging in.

Protect your username and password and make sure your password is not easy for someone to guess. Definitely no words that can be found in the dictionary, names, telephone numbers, birthdays or other easy to guess passwords.

Most sites that require you to enter information will have https at the beginning of the address in your browser. Make sure you see the browser padlock on all websites when entering any personal information. If your web browser displays a warning when you visit a website do not click ok, leave the site even if you think the site can be trusted. Get in touch with the site owners and ask them about it. This can be a tell tale sign that someone is intercepting your data or that the site is fake.

Sheffield Free Wi-Fi uses many techniques to combat online dangers. We cannot discuss most of them publicly for obvious reasons but something that separates us from most other public Wi-Fi services is that we assign a private network to each user while they are online.

These private networks are called vlans. Normally when using any form of shared Wi-Fi service everyone that is using the service is in the same vlan and can see everyone else's devices. The ability to see other users devices causes obvious security issues, other users can see any shared folders you may have, they can use software to try and break into your device, they can even intercept your data. With the Sheffield-Free-WiFi service this is not the case. Your connection on our network is separated into its own vlan which isolates your account and your data from everyone else. It is the same technology that is used by broadband companies to separate their traffic. If you have more than one of your own devices using your account they will be in the same vlan so they will still be able to share data.

If you are ever in doubt about using Sheffield-Free-WiFi please just ask us.

Free Wi-Fi Service Launches in Sheffield City Centre on World Wi-Fi Day

A little over a week ago we switched on the Sheffield City Centre Free Wi-Fi service. We have been quiet because we wanted to watch how well it was working and what people thought of it as well as sorting out the odd bug.

Now we know how well it is working and what people think. We have received nothing but positive feedback and the number of users is now into the thousands, in just a week. Thank you.

Over the coming months we will be bringing more areas online. When complete we will be covering at least 293 streets and many public venues. All users will receive a 20Mb/sec service and watch this space for news of speed upgrades.

We would like to thank Sheffield City Council for the opportunity and especially one or two individuals at the Council for all their hard work. We would also like to thank the Sheffield BID, if it wasn’t for them there wouldn’t be a Wi-Fi project. There are many other companies and individuals that we need to thank and we will in future posts.

Here are details of the service in case you haven’t already read about it.

Each user will receive 20Mb/sec of free internet access.

You can roam through the coverage areas and remain constantly connected.

There are no download limits

Your personal data will not be sold

The service is family friendly

The service is very secure

Areas currently covered:

The Moor

Moorfoot

Peace Gardens

Fargate

St. Pauls Square

Surrey Street

Norfolk Street

Norfolk Row

Tudor Square

Pinstone Street

Leopold Street

Chapel Walk

The next phases of the network rollout are currently being prepared. When complete the coverage will include all areas within the Sheffield inner ring road.

Current indoor coverage

Sheffield Winter Garden

Indoor coverage due to go live in the next few months

Sheffield Town Hall

Sheffield City Hall

Ponds Forge Leisure Centre

Sheffield Arena

Moor Market

Howden House

A number of businesses with public and visitor areas such as coffee shops are installing the Sheffield Free Wi-FI service for their customers to use. If you are able to use the service in your favourite Coffee shop or other hangout please let us know so that we can publicise it.

Also, you will soon be able to replace your home or business broadband with a version of the Wi-Fi service. It is a unique service that brings the network into your home or business. You will be able to seamlessly roam from your home into the city without ever being offline and still access your home devices.

We are very excited about the project and we hope that you are too.

Idaq Networks 2018 Network Expansion - Sheffield City Centre High Speed Broadband Rollout

2018 will see Idaq Networks expand its Fixed Wireless Access network throughout Sheffield City Centre. Once complete the expansion will give us the ability to bring high-speed internet access to every address within the City Centre. Our products will range from low cost broadband packages through to high-capacity dedicated circuits with speeds in excess of 1Gb/sec.

Some coverage is already available to business customers and many multi-tenanted buildings in the City Centre.  Our new City Centre products will be available to residential and business customers from May 2018.

Some of the products that will be delivered on the new network include:

If you are a resident or business in the City Centre and would like to be notified when we have service near you please get in touch by using our website contact form or email sales@idaqnetworks.com.

We would also like to hear from IT and telecommunications companies who would like to join our partner program.

Idaq Networks to deliver Free Wi-Fi throughout Sheffield City Centre.

Idaq Networks has entered into a 10 year deal with Sheffield City Council to provide free Wi-Fi internet access in the outdoor areas of Sheffield City Centre and a number of public buildings. The service is to be rolled out during 2018 and will be available to City Centre residents, businesses and visitors. Idaq Networks intends to create the best public access Wi-Fi service in the country with blanket coverage within the City ring road. The network will be available throughout the City Centre with speeds up to 20Mb/sec.

Users will be able to access the service by selecting “Sheffield Free Wi-Fi” on their devices and completing a simple one time registration form.

Idaq Networks will build the network infrastructure using radios mounted on Council owned street furniture such as lighting columns as well as council owned buildings. The infrastructure will also allow the delivery of cutting edge Ultrafast broadband products to residents and businesses within the City ring road that currently do not have access to high speed internet services.

Access to the network will be available free of charge to help a number of innovative digital projects get off the ground. Idaq Networks has already agreed to help with projects led by the Sheffield Universities and Sheffield Digital and are keen to hear about new projects and ideas from other individuals and local businesses.

Sheffield Free Wi-Fi Key Facts

As the project develops Idaq Networks will be recruiting additional staff and updates will be posted on the Idaq Networks website as these positions become available.

Enquiries about the service should be directed by email to citywifi@idaqnetworks.com

About Idaq Networks

Idaq Networks has been providing high speed broadband services to businesses in Sheffield and Rotherham since 2013. The services are delivered using Wireless technology called Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), conventional underground copper and fibre cables are not required. As Idaq Networks services do not depend on conventional cable infrastructure it is possible to deliver ultrafast broadband services to areas that are otherwise limited to slow and outdated broadband technology.

Idaq Networks services are currently used by many local businesses and multi tenanted buildings. Product speeds range from 10Mb/sec up to 5Gb/sec.

Radio installation engineers required

This vacancy is suitable for experienced radio installation engineers who are happy working at heights however we are prepared to give training to other suitable applicants.

Skills/Qualifications:

The requirements are

1, Previous experience installing radio equipment such as antennas, satellite dishes or similar at height to residential or business premises is preferred. If the applicant has no experience installing radio equipment we would be willing to receive applications from people with experience working with building maintenance who are willing to work at heights, are able to communicate with business customers and are technically minded.

2, Full UK driving license with no more than 3 penalty points.

3, Ability to communicate at a business to business level.

4, Currently holds qualifications or is willing to undergo training for working at heights and operation of lifting equipment.

5, Is able to deal with complexity, analyse information, problem solve, has great attention to Detail and can work independently.

Duties

The job will involve the installation and maintenance of radio equipment on customer buildings and our own transmission sites. Tasks will include but are not limited to drilling walls and affixing brackets, terminating cat 6, cat 6 and fibre cables, radio alignment and configuration. Full training will be given.

Applicants should email their CV to office@idaq.com

New connection & innovation voucher funding available for Sheffield City Region businesses.

The SFSY Connection and Innovation Vouchers Scheme offers Vouchers to encourage small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to take-up faster digital connectivity and to further support SMEs to introduce transformational innovations to the business that can improve business performance through faster digital connections.

Using the Idaq Networks Icnos network to provide new or increased high speed connectivity, the Idaq datacentre to provide cutting edge cloud based systems and through our relationships with most of the top local IT providers we can tailor systems to help your business benefit from this latest voucher funding.

Please email office@idaqnetworks.com or call 0114 2562340 to register your interest and find out how this latest voucher scheme can help you overcome high speed connectivity and IT innovation barriers.

Is fibre broadband really fibre?

It is very easy to be confused by technology and for most end users the latest broadband trend is not helping. You will probably have seen all the advertising by Broadband companies offering their latest and greatest fibre broadband products but what do you really get?

For those that don't already know, fibre optic cable is usually a very thin glass cable coated in plastic that carries light along its length. A single strand of fibre can carry many thousands of Megabits per second over very long distances. Telecommunication companies and internet service providers have been using fibre optic cable for many years but its use has grown massively in recent years due to the falling costs of the technology.

Ideally all businesses and homes would have fibre connectivity. Real fibre connectivity would mean that you could currently have internet speeds of hundreds or thousands of Megabits per second or more to your premises. The reason why this doesn't usually happen is that these fibre optic cables have to be dug into the ground from the telephone company all the way to your home or business premises.

The cabled solution that is generally available to you is what is called FTTC or Fibre To The Cabinet. FTTC is a hybrid solution where the telephone company installs fibre optic cable to the boxes you see on the roadside which then connects to some network equipment and converts the light passing down the fibre cable to an electrical signal which is then passed down your old copper telephone wires and eventually enters your house to your socket on the wall. You then have a small piece of network equipment which converts this into something your computer or other device can understand.

As you can imagine, the costs of real fibre are much higher than the cost of FTTC. An average FTTC connection is between £15 and £50 pounds per month and usually does not have an installation charge. The cost of a real fibre circuit can be anywhere from a couple of hundred pounds up to thousands of pounds per month and can cost tens of thousands of pounds to install.

The difference in performance between the two technologies is massive. FTTC usually offers download speeds up to 80 Megabits per second with a much slower upload speed, some companies claim higher speeds. Normally these speeds are not guaranteed and do vary at different times of the day. A real fibre connection on the other hand can offer much higher speeds, many times what can be offered by FTTC and the upload speed would usually be the same as the download speed.

So, in our opinion, the answer to the question "Is fibre broadband really fibre?" is no.

Benefits of Quality Broadband for Businesses

The speed and efficiency at which your internet connectivity works can have a huge impact on your day to day business.

The relationship between internet connectivity and business is now more important than ever, so it’s vital to ensure that your business has quality, fast broadband, so you know that you’re getting the most out of your day.

Whether you’re a start-up business, small or medium enterprise, or a large corporation, internet speed and reliability can make a massive difference to the way daily tasks are carried out.  A quality internet connection allows employees to work more effectively, send and receive information more quickly and increase productivity and time management.

Taking full advantage of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can be done with a speedy connection, allowing businesses to grow their following and communicate with customers old and new.

More and more businesses are now starting to take advantage of cloud storage, which is only really possible with a quick and reliable connection.

With high speed broadband; files can be uploaded and downloaded to cloud based storage solutions with ease. Slow internet speeds can cause file transfers to become interrupted and time out, leaving an employee to start all over again.

Cloud storage can also save businesses money – they no longer need to allocate a large proportion of their budgets to ICT hardware and software, instead storing files off-site and taking advantage of reliable, hosted applications software.

Sending and receiving files is not a problem with a quick connection, so you won’t be waiting hours for file transfers such as invoice runs or software updates, which can take minutes rather than hours.

Communicating with colleagues and customers is revolutionised with a speedy and dependable internet service, expanding the way employees communicate inside and outside of the office, making it easier and quicker for tasks to be completed and information to be shared.

With a quality connection, businesses can be connected to customers and employees not only throughout the country, but the world.

More businesses are now starting to communicate through VOIP programs (Voice over Internet Protocol) allowing them to hold meetings and web conferences through video calls.

Communicating through basic online programs like Skype to speak to customers and colleagues, rather than traditional phone calls can also save you money on telephone bills.

If your business requires a lot of travel for conferences and meetings, these could be held over video conferencing facilities like Apple’s Face Time, in turn saving money and time due to less travelling, leading to greater production and profitability.

If you offer any type of online customer service, your company will never suffer from slow responses due to speed issues.

Whether your day is made up of uploading tender submissions, liaising with clients or working with large files, a faster and more reliable internet connection can really make a difference.

Idaq Networks’ ultra-fast wireless connectivity can provide all of this and more to businesses throughout Sheffield and Rotherham; meaning less stress, more work and a successful business.

We've got a brand new look!

We're excited to launch our brand new animated website, along with a fresh new look logo!

As we evolved, we outgrew our old website and our brand needed to be refined to better represent what we do. Earlier this year, we decided to increase our online presence and overhaul our look to create a stronger brand identity that reflected our offering of ultra-fast reliable internet access for businesses and landlords in Sheffield and Rotherham. As you might know, we're a bit different to most ISPs as our technology works in a completely different way via carrier-class radio transmission equipment and our clients benefit from super reliable service, low installation charges, unlimited data transfer, and quick installation.

Barnsley-based marketing communications agency Script took on the task of refreshing everything including the branding, social media, website design and copy, promotional materials, and marketing strategy to ensure the fresh new look made an impact.

As part of the partnership with Script, our new website has been launched to increase and strengthen our brand presence and raise our company profile through a new website, new branding, and refreshed use of social media.

You can stay up-to-date with news from the industry and us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and LinkedIn.