Do you love captive portals? These are the forms that pop up for public WiFi, if you weren’t sure what they were called.

As I can’t hear your answer, I’ll take an educated guess that your answer is a resounding ‘no’.

I think it is safe to say there is a universal hatred of them and a shared feeling of dread when you click on that open WiFi network and wait for the pop-up.

Will you end in a death loop of being told you have an account, or will you be filling in a form fit for a mortgage application?

Now, it may seem strange that as CEO of Purple WiFi, where we are serving millions of these every day for around half a billion users per year, I’d be so keenly pointing out how horrible they are.

Well, the very reason I started this business over a decade ago is because I hated them with a passion (still do) and wanted to make them better.

We hate them so much that ours are the best in the world.

I would, however, love to see the back of them, and I believe we are in a position to start to make that happen.

We believe in WiFi that is secure, seamless, and everywhere. The latter part may take us a minute, but could be quicker with your help.

Purple ConneX app

We recently launched our very first consumer-facing app, Purple ConneX, which has two ways of helping you stay connected.

The first is any of our networks that have been enabled with our SecurePass technology or OpenRoaming networks, where you will instantly and securely connect.

No forms, no messing, just seamless access to the good stuff: connectivity!

The second is through community-sourced networks.

If you’ve been through the pain of typing in that painfully long password at the local pub and have the app, you can be a good citizen and share it so the next person just clicks ‘join’ and away they go.

There are over 5 million of the first type and about the same of the second, so that’s a lot of secure connectivity.

Partnering with local councils

We recently announced a partnership with Newcastle City Council, where this is enabled across all the council assets – outdoors and in –  but is being extended by local businesses joining in and more partners agreeing, which will extend where this unified network can be accessed. Other councils in the North looking to join.

In order to make this happen, we launched a free license for our software at the same time, so that anyone can enable it in their venues in under 30 minutes, while also complying with the various legal requirements of having public WiFi.

As a B-Corp, one of the ways we believe Purple can have an impact beyond investor returns is by improving digital inclusion, which is still a major problem in the UK with over 2 million homes with no connectivity and many, many more with very little.

There are well documented benefits to people being connected for education, employment and accessing the right Government services but it has also proved to be a literal lifeline to many when they are going through difficult times.

By creating a trusted, secure network which is completely free to access and is widespread, we will improve the lives of many and boost the economy.

Now, as a venue offering free WiFi and enjoying the benefits of first party data collection or analytics, you may be torn between the consumer within who can’t wait to get rid and the marketeer who wants the benefits.

Well, you can achieve both ensuring that data that is collected is extremely high intent which has many of its own benefits whilst giving your customers an ‘ahh’ moment instead of an ‘argh’ one.

Join webinar on November 12th

If you want to hear more, join us on a webinar on November 12th, or just get on and enable your network today.