New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
The City of New Bedford has implemented a computer network upgrade that establishes new public wireless internet access and improves internal communication between municipal offices.
As part of the effort, City Hall now joins the City’s public library branches in offering public wireless internet service. Other municipal sites, including the New Bedford Airport and the Buttonwood Park Zoo, will soon offer the same Wi-Fi access.
Mayor Jon Mitchell heralded the wireless project, “In an age of smart phones, iPads, and laptops, public Wi-Fi service is a necessity not a luxury. It is going to make life a lot easier for both visitors and residents doing business at City Hall. This is a great example of our efforts to bring the City’s communications systems into the 21st Century.”
The service does not require a security key for access and will allow anyone, within range of the signal, unlimited access to the Internet with some limitations. The public access complies with the FCC’s Children Internet Protection Act (CIPA) in order to protect children from accessing inappropriate material. Anyone attempting to visit a website considered inappropriate by the content filter will be redirected to the City of New Bedford home page. These same safeguards are used in the public libraries.
In order to ensure high speed connection on the network, the City has restricted the ability to stream audio or video signals between 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
