At Issy-les-Moulineaux wireless network connection is available at two frequently visited areas of the city; the city centre and Val de Seine, the business area. The service provider for the city centre is Orange and for Val de Seine, Neuf Cegetel. The expansion of this network makes it possible for users having laptops or a bimodal portable telephone (GSM and Wi-Fi) to connect to a high speed Internet connection and look up their mails at any time from terraces, public benches, bus stations. This initiative shows that the city of Issy is all for extending the wireless network connection as far as possible without drawing on the tax payer’s resources and encouraging healthy competition.
During the Spring of 2003 Issy was one of the first French cities to offer free wireless access points to Wi-Fi inside town buildings: the town hall, administrative centres, and media library. Today Issy-les-Moulineaux has welcomed the service providers Orange and Neuf Cegetel to set up and monitor a Mesh Wi-Fi network at their own expense. However Issy-les-Moulineaux, mindful of the competition law, has been helping them to do so. Users can now look up their mails and surf the net from inside as well from outside the Sports Palace while waiting for their train or their bus. In exchange of letting Wi-Fi install access points in urban property Issy now has free access to municipal websites (www.issy.com and www.issy.tv). All the citizens of Issy thus can get information about their town for free. On the other hand, the internet service providers in collaboration with other town services have seen to it that the Wi-Fi terminals are harmoniously integrated in the urban landscape. Thus while the main road was being redone Neuf Cegetel used the opportunity to install their terminals inside lamp posts
