CONYERS — Olde Town is primed to soon offer free Wi-Fi, or free wireless Internet connection, and the money is available to make it happen, officials learned at last weekend’s city retreat.

City staff members told the mayor and council that Wi-Fi coverage would help attract new business, draw additional customers and provide employment opportunities to businesses.

“We can charge for it, but it becomes a very cumbersome thing to do and I don’t know that we’d make that much money off it,” said David Spann of the city manager’s office.

Spann said when the project was previously proposed a couple of years ago, costs were estimated at $130,000. Now, equipment costs are estimated at $30,000. At most, a site survey would be $30,000, Spann said, adding he thought it would really be close to $10,000.

Installation can be done in-house.

“An installation by a vendor would cost us a bunch, but this is something our folks can do themselves,” Spann said. “It’s a matter of strapping an antennae up and plugging it in a power source. It’s not rocket science.”

Spann added it would be ideal to have the site study done in the winter when trees would not be in the way.

Councilman Cleveland Stroud asked about the maintenance costs of such a mass coverage, and Spann said the maintenance would be like the city’s other IT equipment and would not be excessive.

Eventually, the plan is to have Wi-Fi throughout the entire city, according to Spann. The Internet coverage would be a valuable tool in fighting crime, Spann added.

The city used a federal grant last year to purchase new computers for its police cars to create a wireless mesh network.

“As those police cars drive around the city now, it actually creates a little wireless network of its own,” Spann said. “That’s how we’re transmitting data now.”

The previous computers were using radio waves to send data, which were slow and limited how much data could be transmitted.

City officials looked into creating wireless zones in high crime districts, such as the Ga. Highway 138 corridor and the Wal-Mart corridor. The wireless capabilities would allow for cameras to be installed and stream live video at 30 frames per second. Officials have tested the use of the cameras.

“The public safety applications that we would be able to do in the future are unbelievable,” Spann said. “Most of it is going to be surveillance-related.”

Councilman Marty Jones had some concern about the “big brother aspect” of using the cameras, questioning who would have access to videos.

“We need to think about it and make sure we don’t go too far, too fast,” Jones said.