Switzerland’s largest cable operator UPC Cablecom will roll out co-surfing service Wi-Free to its whole customer base across Switzerland in early October 2014.
The function which launched in January 2014 in the town of St. Gallen enables internet customers to surf the net free of charge using the local Wi-Fi hotspots of other customers when they are in reach. To enable the service, a second, separate hot sport for third parties will be activated in the modems through a software update.
The co-surfers get a data rate of 5Mbps for downloads and 500 Kbit/s for uploads. The bandwidth is provided on top of the users’ individual tariffs, so it won’t affect their own speeds. Customers who don’t want to offer Wi-Free can deactivate the function through online customer portal MyUPC.
With more than 500,000 potential hotspots, Wi-Free will become Switzerland’s largest Wi-Fi network, according to UPC Cablecom. The sister companies in the Netherlands, Poland and Ireland have already deployed Wi-Free. UPC Cablecom’s customers can use the service, for example when on holiday.
US parent company Liberty Global wants to also roll out Wi-Free at its other cable subsidiaries in future.
