A free Wi-Fi service launched in Wantage town centre is already proving a great draw in the town. The service, which covers the Market Place, allows people visiting, living or working in the town centre to access the internet easily using their smartphones, lap-tops, tablets or PDAs to find out information about the town. In the first three months of the scheme there were more than 1,600 individual visits, over 920 of which were unique visitors, with the remainder returning visitors. The average duration of visits to the free service was just over half a minute, indicating that most people are using it for information, as is the intention, as opposed to general browsing. The free Wi-Fi service was introduced earlier this year to encourage visitors to extend their stay in the town centre by providing them with an easy to use information source, encouraging them to stop for longer in the town for refreshments or to do some shopping. Wantage was chosen as a pilot town for providing the free Wi-Fi service, with the intention of extending it out to the Abingdon and Faringdon town centres if it continues to be well received. The service, which has been implemented by Vale of White Horse District Council, is being partly paid for through income from local businesses which have paid to advertise on the main landing page. Cllr Elaine Ware, Cabinet Member for Economy, Leisure and Property at Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “The service is designed to allow people to easily find out information about the town, encouraging them to explore a bit further. We are therefore really pleased that lots of people have already benefited from free Wi-Fi, and hopefully businesses in the town have been receiving extra custom as a result. All businesses interested in taking advantage of the media sales opportunity to be featured on the landing page for the free Wi-Fi should contact Karen Ogden on 0844 99 11 200 or email Karen.ogden@cts-group.co.uk