panOULU is a

municipal wireless network A municipal wireless network is a citywide wireless network. This usually works by providing municipal broadband via Wi-Fi to large parts or all of a municipal area by deploying a wireless mesh network. The typical deployment design uses hundreds ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

. panOULU is operated by City of Oulu,

University of Oulu The University of Oulu ( fi, Oulun yliopisto) is one of the largest universities in Finland, located in the city of Oulu. It was founded on July 8, 1958. The university has around 13,000 students and 2,900 staff. 21 International Master's P ...

Oulu University of Applied Sciences Oulu University of Applied Sciences (OAMK) (in Finnish: ''Oulun ammattikorkeakoulu'' (Oamk)) is a university of applied sciences in Oulu, Finland with approximately 9,000 students, including around 240 international degree students. The number of ...

and Oulun Puhelin Oyj. The network coveres central

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after ...

(including various buildings, such as the city hall, public libraries,

Oulun Energia Areena Oulun jäähalli ('Oulu Ice Hall' or 'Oulu Ice Rink'), previously known as Raksilan jäähalli and called Oulun Energia Areena since 2006 for sponsorship reasons, is an ice sport arena in the Raksila Sports Centre, located in the Raksila distri ...

ice hockey arena, etc.), and the campus areas. In addition, outside of Oulu, the network covers

Oulu Airport Oulu Airport (; fi, Oulun lentoasema, sv, Uleåborgs flygplats) is located in Oulu, Finland, south-west of the city centre. The airport is the second busiest in Finland after Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, as measured by the number of passengers (ca ...

Oulunsalo Oulunsalo ( sv, Oulunsalo, also formerly ) is former municipality in the region of Northern Ostrobothnia, in Finland. Along with Haukipudas, Kiiminki and Yli-Ii it lost its municipal status and was merged with the city of Oulu on 1 January 2013. ...

, the ferries to

Hailuoto Hailuoto (; sv, Karlö) is a Finnish island in the northern Baltic Sea and a municipality in Northern Ostrobothnia region. The population of Hailuoto is (), which make it the smallest municipality in Northern Ostrobothnia and the former Oulu ...

, University of Oulu campus in

Kajaani Kajaani (; sv, Kajana) is the most populous town and the capital of the Kainuu Region of Finland. It is located southeast of Lake Oulu (Oulujärvi), which drains into the Gulf of Bothnia through the Oulu River (Oulujoki). As of , it had a pop ...

, and the Chydenius Institute campus in

Kokkola Kokkola (; sv, Karleby, ) is a town and municipality of Finland. The town is located in the Central Ostrobothnia region. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Neighbour municipal ...

. The network also covers parts of

Ylikiiminki Ylikiiminki ( sv, Överkiminge) is a former municipality of Finland. It was consolidated with the city of Oulu on 1 January 2009. It was located in the province of Oulu and is part of the Northern Ostrobothnia region. The municipality had a popul ...

. The network is free to use and requires no passwords; it can be used with any computer, cell phone, PDA or other device that is capable of using

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio w ...

. the network has over 900

wireless access point In computer networking, a wireless access point (WAP), or more generally just access point (AP), is a networking hardware device that allows other Wi-Fi devices to connect to a wired network. As a standalone device, the AP may have a wired co ...

s.Kaleva: PanOulu-verkko rikkoi käyttäjäennätyksen, 06.11.2007
Based on coverage and potential number of users, it is currently the largest public wireless network in Finland. Also, it is the first free and open wireless network that operates in an airport in Finland.

References

{{reflist

External links

panOULU home page
Wi-Fi providers Oulu University of Oulu