THE company planning to roll out a wireless internet network across the whole of Swindon has admitted it failed to set up its own email account properly.

For the first week of Signal’s new website curious Swindon residents clicking on the ‘contact’ button were finding their emails bouncing back.

It was only when an Adver reader examined the delivery failure email that he noticed the name of the company was spelt wrong as ‘singal’ instead of ‘signal’.

The head of Digital City, the company behind the project, said it was a temporary blip and the website was now functioning normally. But according to one councillor it is a damning indictment of the firm’s ability to cope with such a complex project.

Des Morgan, of Caraway Drive, contacted the Adver after his email to Signal bounced back to him.

Mr Morgan said: “I’m very concerned that Swindon Council has entrusted this company with launching wi-fi in Swindon when they cannot get something as simple as their email address right.

“It just confirms people’s concerns about this project and the ability of this company to carry it out.”

Rikki Hunt, who makes up one third of Digital City UK, alongside Swindon Council and IT firm aQovia, said it was a technical glitch.

“It was only on one part of the site,” he said.

“The other emails were working but unfortunately there was a problem with one.

“It has been fixed now and there is no problem.”

The Signal project was launched in Highworth earlier this month and is expected to be rolled out across the town by April.

Residents who sign up to the scheme will get two hours’ free wireless internet a day and can upgrade to a 24/7 package. According to Mr Hunt the scheme will be fully operational in Highworth by January 14.

According to Coun Derique Montaut, leader of Swindon Council’s Labour group, this incident proves that the administration should have gone out to tender to find a company capable of running the project.

He said: “All the way through we have said the lack of competition in going ahead with this project would cause a problem. Only a select few councillors were privy to the discussions about how much the council was going to loan and who the project was going to go to. There should have been a full discussion about the merits of this scheme and about who should run it.

“I am not surprised there have been problems.”

For more information on the wi-fi project go to www.getsignal.co.uk.