VISITORS and residents in Monmouth will be soon able to access the internet from anywhere in the town.

Monmouthshire council is spending up to £100,000 for Monmouth to become the first open and free wireless broadband (wi-fi) enabled town in Wales and first QRpedia town in the world on April 21.

It is spending between £80,000 and £100,000 to place antennae in and around the town to provide broadband ahead of the launch of a new project entitled ‘Monmouthpedia’.

The website will provide Wikipedia articles on interesting places, people, artefacts, flora, fauna in Monmouth and is accessed by visitors using QRpedia codes.

These are a type of bar code a smartphone can read through its camera that takes the user to aWikipedia article in their language.

The image codes will be displayed in shop windows, the museum and places of interest and there are plans for a food trail and history trail.

There are already 1,000 QRpedia codes set up, which include the Shire Hall and Museum, as well as 700 articles written and translated about Monmouth by volunteers.

People can also add their own articles and photographs.

The project aims to encourage community involvement for teaching, learning IT skills and topics from natural history to intergenerational collaborations.

John Cummings was recently appointed as the Shire Hall Wikipedian in residence who will work with groups in the town and acrossWales to bring innovative ideas to Monmouth.

Shire Hall general manager Mike Booth said: “It is an online encyclopedia for the town that is revolutionary and if successful could be introduced in other places around the world.”