Downtown Montevallo will soon have free public WiFi for all to use, thanks to a partnership between the city and the University of Montevallo.
“The University is excited to support the downtown life,” University of Montevallo Chief Information Officer, Craig Gray, said in a press release. “We want students on Main Street and we want people to see this as a vibrant living community. The University bears the namesake of the town it’s in.”
To ensure good connections, outdoor access points will be placed on one pole per block along Main Street from the Jack’s Family Restaurant to City Hall.
Montevallo Mayor Hollie Cost anticipates that offering public WiFi will spur more folks to venture downtown and will help students.
“Ideally, this will get the citizens out more,” Cost said in the release. “It could also help students academically who do not have Wi-Fi at home. It’s another catalyst for people to come downtown.”
While public WiFi offers people an opportunity to connect when they’re out and about, it also comes with risks.
Earlier this month, NBC Nightly News did a story demonstrating how cyber-criminals can utilize public networks to steal the personal information of those who are connected.
Gray said that the network infrastructure will include the latest encryption methodology.
The public WiFi network will be online sometime this spring.
