WALLINGFORD is the first town in Oxfordshire to install a free Wi-Fi Internet connection in the town centre.

The new wireless system, set up by voluntary group Wallingford Partnership, will let people log on to their emails and Internet free from cafes, shops, restaurants and park benches in the town.

The signal is available from St Leonard's Square, in the south, to the north end of the Market Place, and from the Riverside at Crowmarsh, on the east bank of the River Thames, to the Kinecroft in the west.

More network points are still being installed to boost the signal at certain points.

Although the Partnership could start charging people if hundreds of users log on, it is currently free.

Partnership chairman Derrick Hoare said it was a great achievement for the town to become the first in the county to offer the resource.

He said: "We all have to bear in mind the speed at which technology is changing.

"We have decided to make it free at the moment, and we may still have some work to do to determine whether we should charge for certain facilities.

"We will be going round Wallingford showing shopkeepers how to set up it and put notices in the window letting people know it is up and running."

People who want to go online through the system need to enable their notebooks, laptops or smart phones to detect the ‘Wallingford Wi-Fi’ wireless signal, and then connect when it is detected.

The new system could soon be extended to provide super-fast wireless connections for the town.

Wallingford Partnership, in association with contractor T James Telecoms, is investigating a WiMax system, allowing connection speeds 24 times faster than the average UK Internet connection.

That could give hundreds of businesses and householders instant access to the Internet through the community-owned system.

Mr Hoare said: “We have already been thinking about the possibility of WiMax. It is a field which is constantly developing, and there is constant competition for customers, so we have to see what is viable and what the demand is. It is absolutely on the cards. T James are extremely interested in working with the Partnership on that possibility.”

The Wi-FI connection has been funded by some of the £200,000 secured from the South East England Development Agency and South Oxfordshire District Council last year to promote the town.