July 16th, 2007
London's 'free' Wi-Fi flips the switch, but you might want to upgrade
If you take a walk along the Thames these days, you can bring your laptop or iPhone with you and tap into London’s new free Wi-Fi, ZDNet UK reports. Currently there are 13 miles of Wi-Fi along the Thames through central London, to be expanded to 22 miles in August.
But “free” might be just another word for “captive audience,” as the free network, which is marketed as Online-4-free.com, interrupts users every 15 minutes to play a 15- to 30-second-long ad. That would be enough to push most folks up to the pay version of the London network, which offers a 500Kbps connection, double the free version’s 256Kbps, for a quite reasonable £9.95 ($20) a month.
“This really marks the arrival of free Wi-Fi in Greater London,” said Dan Toomey, chief executive of Free-hotspot. “Millions of Londoners, as well as commuters, visitors and tourists, can now expect to find free Wi-Fi as they work or play along the Thames.”
Free municipal Wi-Fi is spreading throughout the UK and Europe. Norwich, England, launched a city-funded network last summer and Manchester is slated to launch one next month. Paris is building a free citywide network in a public-private alliance with Alcatel-Lucent and SFR. Many other fee-based networks are available throughout the UK, with many built by British Telecom.
