Newcastle City Council and connectivity provider Purple have deployed a city-wide OpenRoaming wireless network across the North East of England municipality, consolidating fragmented public WiFi hotspots into a single, unified digital infrastructure.

Serving as a major economic and administrative centre, Newcastle’s deployment provides continuous coverage across a metropolitan area of more than 840,000 people and a regional catchment of 1.7 million. The network spans civic buildings, libraries, museums, streets, and commercial spaces, allowing users to move throughout the urban centre without encountering repeated login screens or captive portals.

The underlying infrastructure utilises the OpenRoaming standard to automate device authentication across disparate access points. The local authority is currently piloting an expansion of the system with the Tyne and Wear Metro, aiming to integrate the region’s transport network into the unified connectivity grid.

Operational data from May 2026 recorded nearly 787,000 network logins, with 92 percent completed through automated secure access. The municipal deployment functions as core public infrastructure, providing secure internet access for residents lacking reliable home connectivity to access government services, education, and employment resources.

“Secure connectivity across libraries, community hubs, and public spaces means that a resident without a reliable connection at home can still access the services they need,” said Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Purple. “Newcastle City Council treated connectivity as public infrastructure rather than a nice-to-have, and made sure it worked for everyone in the city.”