London to become Europe's largest WiFi hotspot

As if blanketing the rim of the River Thames with WiFi wasn't good enough to get us out of the office and into the park, the Evening Standard is reporting that the whole city of London will soon becomes "Europe's biggest wireless internet hotspot." As expected, some 130 base stations will be arranged in a sophisticated mesh networking setup, which will span "the entire Square Mile," subsequently giving about 350,000 employees in the area access to unadulterated wireless internet. Wireless gurus from The Cloud are working in conjunction with city officials to tie off the final steps, and while initial coverage areas will dwarf Soho and Barbican City, the map above shows just how broad the service could get. Unfortunately, this edition of citywide WiFi will not come gratis, as users who plan to take advantage will be kindly asked to fork over about £11 ($22) a month for access.

[Via Inquirer]

[Fearless @ Apr 16th 2007 8:52PM]

I'm in your city, Stealing your Internets.

[lg @ Apr 17th 2007 5:48AM]

I don't. I want both because it means better specced phones but also means the competition will drive up services (ie faster net access) and down prices.

[Andrew H. @ Apr 16th 2007 9:13PM]

all your internets are belong to london

[Andrew Baisden @ Apr 16th 2007 9:17PM]

viva London (if its free)

[N Burns @ Apr 16th 2007 10:03PM]

RTFA:
"Unfortunately, this edition of citywide WiFi will not come gratis, as users who plan to take advantage will be kindly asked to fork over about £11 ($22) a month for access."

[Homeboy @ Apr 16th 2007 9:57PM]

As if the CCV cameras and microphones in the streets of central London weren't enough, the British government wants us to use their internet service so that they can spy on us even more.

[LordFarkward @ Apr 16th 2007 10:34PM]

haha quite aptly named indeed. "The whole of London will be covered by The Cloud". not just any clouds that already gives it its greyish reputation, but it's THE cloud. :)

[TNP @ Apr 16th 2007 11:30PM]

Yes, it's important that the River be covered.

[Gunnar @ Apr 17th 2007 12:10AM]

Note that "City of London" doesn't mean what most non-Brits think it means. It is only a tiny part of (Greater) London.

[devon @ Apr 17th 2007 2:34AM]

Strange that they wouldn't provide coverage for Westminster. You'd think they'd at least blanket the Westminster Palace/Abbey area.

[nikster @ Apr 17th 2007 4:11AM]

...and in 2008, some competitor will come along and blanket-cover London with 10 WiMax stations.

I find it a bit expensive - how fast is that thing?

[Rich @ Apr 17th 2007 4:17AM]

I concur with Gunnar. The 'City of London' really only covers the financial district of London (aka the Sqaure Mile). So is only (you've guessed it) about a mile square -- not the vastness that is the Greater London area. This would be equivalent to the NY Times stating 'Manhattan to be covered by WiFi'... No biggie!

[mattclarkie @ Apr 17th 2007 4:42AM]

Useful, now you can pay Ken's congestion charge whilst stuck in a traffic jam he caused. Christ, how much money is Ken going to pocket from that £11ppm.

Well by the Olympics in 2012 we'll have the worlds largest 5 generations out of date wireless network, makes you proud to be a brit.

[Trauma @ Apr 17th 2007 4:51AM]

@devon: As paranoid as the British government usually is, I guess they are afraid somebody would trigger a bomb via wi-fi?

[MacroEQ @ Apr 17th 2007 5:33AM]

The City of London is a very small area of London which mainly comprises of commercial (not residential) buildings. Hardly anyone lives in The City (unless you're a billionaire) so all the people who work there will already have Internet access through work.

So, I fail to see the point of this.

[leon @ Apr 17th 2007 5:49AM]

Camden isn't in the CoL...

[Imran @ Apr 17th 2007 6:37AM]

omg I'm so happy to see my yard map on engadget. Although, I can speak from experience, the starbucks in upper street charges too much.

[yet another Matt @ Apr 17th 2007 6:38AM]

It should be mentioned that The Cloud also connect a load of other networks together such as T-mobile and BT Openworld, and BT Openworld offer you free access if you have their 8MB ADSL line, which a lot of people do. Basically if you have a BT Home Hub you have free WiFi access waiting for you.

@Chrisphillers - GPRS and UMTS cannot compare to the cheapness and speed of WiFi, though I guess it depends on a persons usage. I love how useful the WiFi is on the N80, I only use 3G if I have a really desperate need and I'm feeling a bit flush.

[Chrisphillers @ Apr 17th 2007 8:15AM]

@yet another Matt

3.5G Means HSPA not GPRS! HSPA is rather speedy and for surfing/VOIP is easily comparable to Wifi. When you are on the move Wifi has no advantages whatsoever over 3.5G. I am using my 'unlimited' T mobile connection for internet and VOIP and on top of that it doesnt drain my battery like Wifi (on N95).

PS 02/Vodafone/Orange are complete rips offs for data, Tmobile/3 make 3.5G cheap and Wifi pointless.

[Snesgirl @ Apr 17th 2007 7:36AM]

Hmmmm the eniter 'Golden Mile' (including financial district)as one GIANT wi-FI honey pot.

Yuummmeh.

[kalleboo @ Apr 17th 2007 8:49AM]

Wait, doesn't Stockholm already have like 100 FREE WiFi spots from Skype, plus 50 from some other company and 50 from a third?

[melissa @ Apr 17th 2007 12:06PM]

After your last story about the River Thames coverage, I got really excited because we just moved into a massive Dutch barge moored near Tower Bridge, and haven't had our internet installed yet, and thought we'd actually use this in the interim. Only to find that the wifi wasn't there at all - tons of residential routers, but nothing whatsoever operated by the company in question. So I'll believe it when it actually comes up in MacStumbler, and not a second earlier.

[Chrisphillers @ Apr 17th 2007 3:15PM]

2 years ago I would have welcomed this, but It seems kinda pointless with 3.5G now - anyone else think so?

[mick angel @ Apr 17th 2007 3:32PM]

Just a small correction: there's no such place as "Barbican City". The map shows the Barbican area and the City area. They are not one place.

/Pedant hat off.

[Bill Hodgson @ Apr 18th 2007 7:31AM]

The Square Mile contains a high concentration of workers who could afford and make use of WiFi. Most firms put in place blocks and filters on Corporate Internet access which this will neatly avoid. BTW Barbican and City are two different places, not one place "Barbican City" as suggested above.

[Imran @ Apr 18th 2007 5:38PM]

Are you Bill Hodgson Architecture teacher at UCL?

[Bill Hodgson @ Apr 19th 2007 5:41PM]

I'm the Bill Hodgson who works at DTCC.

[Bill Hodgson @ Apr 19th 2007 5:46PM]

No I'm Bill from DTCC, sorry.

[Ben Holmes @ Apr 26th 2007 9:10PM]

LOL. 'Barbican City' is not one place like 'Oklahoma City', it's two areas, called Barbican and the City. Not laffing 'cos you didn't know (why would you?) just 'cos it sounds funny, like something out of a John Carpenter film called "Escape from Barbican City".