Look at this man. Just look at him. Isn't it obvious that Boris Johnson gets what Boris Johnson wants? In case you've been misinformed about the power this man's wishes hold, you should know that he's well on his way to establishing the first
muni-fi project to actually work -- or so he hopes. By and large, every attempt to sprinkle WiFi onto entire US cities has
fallen short in one way or another, but London has a motivator that no American borough ever did: the
2012 Olympics. Boris' plan is to blanket all of London in WiFi prior to the opening ceremony, with "every lamppost and every bus stop" having a router or repeater in it. The scheme is part of a larger plan to make London the "technology capital of the world," but unfortunately, your hopes of connecting for free may be dashed. According to the
London Evening Standard, "no details of pricing have been given," and we get the impression that those in charge of the rollout would've jumped at the chance to gloat about its
free-ness if that were indeed the case. But then again, who are we to question the might of London's Mayor?
posted May 18th 2010 12:29PM
@prowlmedia Don't forget that we have Heroes advert free too.
@Oli D
not for long though, it's been cancelled!
@Marklitt
And then some...
According to the BBC's 2008–2009 Annual Report,its income can be broken down as follows:
£3,493.8 million in licence fees collected from householders;
£775.9 million from BBC Commercial Businesses;
£294.6 million from government grants;
£41.1 million from other income, such as providing content to overseas broadcasters and concert ticket sales;
Nice work if you can get it.
BBC executives spent more than £2,000 of public money at the Las Vegas hotel featured in Ocean's Eleven as part of the corporation's £45 million annual bill for accommodation and travel.
In 2008-09, there were 168,800 prosecutions for licence-fee evasion. That is nearly 15 per cent of all prosecutions. Almost all the people charged are poor. The telly is one of their few pleasures, and they tend not to watch the BBC on it.
@Jay Evans
I thought you needed a license just to actually own a TV, let alone watch it.
@ilh
That's incorrect. If you buy a TV and only hook up, for example, a DVD player, an Xbox and a PS Triple, you don't have to pay the licence.
It also means the telly can't be connected to an aerial legally.
Sounds like common sense; community wifi. How much does a router really cost anyway.... and power consumption? We burn street lights and lights in buildings as if people didn't give a flying shit about energy conservation, so turn some of the lights off and turn the routers on. Plenty of non smartphone users like me who rock a wifi mid (iTouch) would greatly appreciate blanketed access to free wifi...... and if they keep the fee small, 20BP per year or so, I am sure plenty of people would sign up~
@cosmicinglewood And if the Wi-Fi is any better than what BT can give you expect every bob and his uncle to be raping it with xbox live and bit-torrent!
We need a few more details to know how well this could work out.
enter conficker C.
This makes a lot of sense as smartphones become more prevalent, if my entire city is covered in WiFi, I would never fucking pay for data plans on phones.
Yeah.... But what did Stone Cold Steve Austin have to say about this.
Boris Johnson
What. A. Legend.
Make London the technology capital of the world...By covering the city with wifi? That's about the most ridiculous thing I ever heard.
@desibartender
you make it sound like common place to have a whole city covered by wifi.
good ol Boris. The man who brought us such wonderful tackles such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWIUp19bBoA
Good old Boris - how not to answer a question
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRRYDVaXdaA
"Anyone up for a good old game of Wiff Waff old chaps?! It is coming home after all. A bloody good idea of mine, this city wi-fi."
- relayed from Boris
Minneapolis has city-wide WiFi...seems to be the only successful project of that size though...
I allready have this in my home town in the UK, Swindon
@dotrocket
- Rep for living in Swindon!!!
(US people will no doubt down-rank me for this, you guys'll miss the joke ;))
Seriously though, if you live and work in London, no longer need a phone!
I'll just cruise around with an iPod Touch running OS 4.0 and Skype.
(Or OS 6.0 by then I guess..)
Nice cilantro.
Is it just me, or does he look like the "what do you mean you forgot the chicken nuggets" cat? Hmm..
I don' think all that Wifi can be healthy, literally.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16107253
YIPEEE! London to become worlds next largest security risk. A whole city of wifi for people to steal information from. Even if its encrypted to an extent opening it to the public will make it useless. I may have to save money for vacation in 2012. People need to forget about wifi and move on to something more secure and better planned.
@jeicrash
so long as users are trained in basic internet security and that they shouldn't use the network for personal information they should be ok, but of course there's no bigger idiot then an untrained user
London would not be the first city with full wifi.
Here in Riverside, CA, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, we've had city-wide wifi for four years. It's provided by AT&T and there are two versions.
There's AT&T metro free, which caps at 128 Kbps but is free as the name suggests, then there's AT&T metro wifi. $20 a month or $6 a visit I believe, though it's free for u-verse or AT&T dsl subscribers (I have uverse so its free for me).
This wifi blankets the entire city.
whats so special ??, they are not free !! , why would i use wifi when on the road when its not free ??, i think no one need to download torrents on the road , usb modems would do it ( if am gonna pay anyway :D )
his hair - IT BURNS
Also, redmond, OR has this
Try having him as your mayor, and then see if he's awesome.
Not to mention that he was educated at Eton and was part of what was essentially, a club for rich people who would go around trashing places and getting really drunk, then paying for the damages.
http://markgorman.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/cameron-bullingdon-dining-club2_468x420.jpg
See if you can spot him in that picture.
I thought Britain was BROKE.
Uh... my entire home town has free municipal wifi. Of course, it is Mississippi, so nobody really pays attention.
Check it: http://gilmorefoundation.org/AmoryNet.htm
im pretty sure norwich got city wide free wifi 4 years ago as well
jackanakanory
Boris, I like your style.
wow i want yellow hair that's awesome
That's Lord Mayor to you.