A PIONEERING, wireless Internet system could be installed in Wallingford, providing a super-fast connection for homes and businesses across a seven-mile radius.

The proposal is being considered by the Wallingford Partnership Ltd, which will install an initial system to provide a free Internet connection in the town centre within the next six months.

If it is a success and the group secures backing from local businesses, it could install a cutting-edge WiMAX system, allowing connection speeds up to 100 megabits per second — 24 times faster than the average Internet connection in the UK. The not-for-profit partnership could then charge residents and firms to use the system, generating cash for ongoing improvements in the town centre.

Partnership chairman Derrick Hoare said: “It is completely new technology. It is leading edge.

“As far as I am aware, no other towns have got it yet. One of the things we have had to consider is the speed at which technology moves now.”

He added: “With a 12-kilometre radius, it has got enormous potential. It is about getting the business model right so we know whether people will want to pay for it.

“We could offer a lower-powered system free, but people could buy into the higher speeds.

“If we did seriously consider it, then there would be planning issues we would have to deal with.”

The partnership will assess business and popular support for the plan after launching a smaller, town-centre WiFi system, stretching from the River Thames to the Kinecroft, later this year, using some of the £200,000 of funding secured from the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and South Oxfordshire District Council in 2009.

Director Lynda Atkins told the Herald that any upgrade to install super-speed WiMAX would take at least a year to introduce.

She said it would require a number of WiMAX aerials to be installed throughout the town, but this could be done without building unsightly masts.

Unlike WiFi, which can only provide Internet connections over a few hundred feet, top-of-the-range WiMAX systems can provide broadband access for several miles.

Meanwhile, the SEEDA cash has already paid for the launch of the town’s website — www.wallingford.co.uk — and the development of town trails to be launched in the coming months.

The partnership will also be hoisting dozens of new flags for the first time on St George’s Day on April 23 and Mayor’s Sunday, May 16. Seventy flag brackets are being installed around the town centre to support new four-foot-long St George’s Cross and six-foot-long town crest flags, while 50 Christmas trees will be erected in December.

The directors hope the initiative to beautify the town centre will attract more tourists and shoppers.

Mr Hoare said the partnership would also look at putting up the St George’s Cross flags during England’s World Cup campaign in June.