The network, which will cost about $12,000, will be established by a group of Otago Polytechnic third year computing and information technology students and senior lecturer Tom Clark.
Mr Clark said the aim of the network, which will operate on a long-range and low-power frequency protocol called LoRaWAN, was not to provide general-purpose internet.
``It will enable small smart devices to connect to the internet to transmit small amounts of data.
``The network will provide a freely accessible community resource for all to use.''
The LoRaWAN network would not have constraints, including range, power consumption and cost, that Wi-Fi and mobile phone data networks had.
``Wi-Fi can't be used in most unconventional places because most of the time, you have to be within a 100m range of a Wi-Fi base station.''
The new networking devices would have a range of between 5km and 10km.
Five devices, worth about $1500 each, would be placed at various points around the city to ensure the network could be accessed across the central city, he said.
The project was the first of the New Zealand chapter of ``The Things Network'', an international collaboration of people developing city-wide wireless networks.
Mr Clark said the network device had been used by boat owners in Amsterdam to alert them if their boats began taking on water.
``In general, the kind of target applications are things that are pretty simple, but that you need to be able to put anywhere.''
Remote weather stations and devices on gates that alerted owners online if they had been left open were examples of the types of applications the network could provide.
At present, eight polytechnic students were writing applications using data gathered from the network servers.
He hoped the next step would be getting Dunedin residents who wanted to connect to the network and learn about the devices involved.
The students were creating a Dunedin tab on ``The Things Network'' website to provide information about the project.
All funding for the city's ``rapid and exciting wireless development'' had been provided by the polytech, he said.
``It is useful for the polytech itself. We have smart meters around the campus that monitor energy and water flow which are currently connected to the campus Wi-Fi. We could use this network ourselves.''
It was likely the network would be available at the Cromwell campus too, he said.
