Belmont recently became one of the first cities in North Carolina to feature free public wi-fi in its common areas.
North Carolina’s own Open Broadband ISP signed a contract with the City of Belmont to provide its 1-gigabit wireless internet service for free to anyone around the main street area.
“We live in a very connected world and smartphones are everywhere, so this was a logical extension of the experience we want to provide downtown,” Belmont City Manager Adrian Miller said. “Visitors to downtown can access mobile content without using their own data plans, so they can review menus or the latest specials that our restaurants and shops are offering.”
The service is broadcast through a series of antennas spread out along Main Street. All you need to do is get in range and select “Open Belmont” as your Wi-Fi option on a phone, tablet, or laptop.
One of the best parts of the new service is that upload and download speeds are both at 1-gigabit speeds (usually upload speeds are far slower than download speeds). If you have a popular YouTube Channel or Facebook Page and you need to get your new video uploaded ASAP, it might make sense to head on over to Belmont.
The City of Belmont has undergone a truly historic transformation over the past several years.
We recently produced this video for the city, showing many of the new changes;