Nordkurier Mediengruppe

Free Wi-Fi strengthens regional economy and promotes the attractiveness of the City of Neubrandenburg, Germany

Smart city technologies increase the attractiveness of a city. Finding a parking space via app, controlling street lighting via sensors or intelligent garbage cans - these are just a few examples of what the city of the future may look like. In conjunction with smart retail solutions, local retailers and ultimately consumers benefit. However, all of these concepts only work if a reliable WLAN infrastructure, which forms the backbone of the digital transformation, is in place.

Nordkurier Mediengruppe, based in Neubrandenburg, is the leading media group in northeast Germany with around 1,600 employees and a daily reach of 333,000 people. In 2015, the Nordkurier Mediengruppe launched the “Lokalfuchs - Regional ist genial” initiative with the aim of strengthening local retailers and businesses and supporting them in the transition to the digital world. In order to implement this project, a freely usable and reliable WLAN infrastructure needed to be implemented in the city.

“We noticed that local retailers and traders, with whom we work very closely as a regional daily newspaper, have not yet realized that they also have to migrate to the online world. Due to the large online mail order companies, brick-and-mortar retail is coming under increasing pressure and must take action in order to create the transformation into the digital world and keep up with the competition. That was the trigger to launch the local fox initiative, ”reports Rainer Zimmer, Chief Technical Officer, Nordkurier Mediengruppe.