North Little Rock’s Central Arkansas Transit Authority (CATA) began a Wi-Fi pilot project to determine the feasibility of outfitting the entire fleet with the hardware necessary to provide passengers with wireless Internet access.

The buses with the wireless equipment will be utilized on two selected routes to allow passengers to connect to the Internet, free of charge. Additional pilot buses may be added in the next few weeks.    

“Providing wireless internet access to passengers is something we have wanted to do for a long time, but the funding hasn’t been available.” stated Bill Adcock, CATA director, operations. “The pilot project will provide us with valuable information regarding passenger usage, hardware performance and potential project cost.”

CATA intends to include the provision of Wi-Fi services in a grant application being submitted to Metroplan later this year. The pilot will last through the month of November.