Municipal Wi-Fi Networks in London, Alexandria

xfletch writes "An famous London Street is now coverered by a free municipal wireless hotspot. Upper street in Islington is now one long Hotspot. The local council has set up this municipal Wi-Fi which they call the Technology Mile using cool-looking lampost-mounted access points [picture] at 200 metre intervals along the street, and the whole area is covered by free wireless internet, allowing users to sit in any of the area's numerous cafes or parks and access the internet. The scheme seems to be an extension of the Streetnet project, and requires a free login, and gives an hour's access before requiring you to login again. It is internet only, so email needs to be via a web-based provider." (Read more below.)

xfletch continues: "British press are reporting some objections raised by comercial Wi-Fi vendors, but conclude that in contrast to the U.S., where bills have been proposed in a dozen states that would forbid cities to offer Wi-Fi services to citizens on the grounds that government should not compete with private enterprise, we are unlikely to see such fireworks in the UK. Apologies for the camera-phone quality photos -- I will take better ones next time I have my digital camera with me."

Not quite as large, but closer to home for many readers, brokencomputer writes "According to a Washington Post article, 'This week, Alexandria began providing free wireless Internet access in its historic center, the first local government to offer alfresco Web surfing at no charge. The system, which relies on broadcasting equipment atop City Hall, the Torpedo Factory and a couple of utility poles, is aimed at outdoor cafe patrons or people who prefer parks to workstations, city officials said.' Interestingly enough, the article states that Verizon, which is the dominant high speed internet provider in the area, is not objecting to the city's plan."

Comments

A bit evil, really...

[Huge Pi Removal]

Streenet networks are a bit evil - round each lamppost they have 3 APs: one to transmit back to the previous lamppost, one to receive from the next lamppost, and one to actually provide the wireless at that point. This means that the wireless channels near to a streetnet network are pretty much totally swamped, and you tend to get a lot of interference.

They're also a bit evil because Streetnet appears to be an offshoot of a project that was initially helped by Mobile Bristol (http://www.mobilebristol.co.uk/ who funded and encouraged them, but they've never publicly acknowledged their help.

Municipal wifi is no bad thing, of course, but sometimes it's much better when done by independent volunteers such as http://www.eastonwireless.net/ rather than private companies who woo the local technically-naive council...

Re:A bit evil, really...

[greenaudrey]

The Streetnet gear is supplied by BelAir Networks http://www.belairnetworks.com/ Each unit has 1 to 4 radios, a 802.11b or b/g radio for access and up to 3 backhaul radios. The backhaul radios operate in the 802.11a 5 GHz band and so don't interfere with access. (FWIW, I am a ./ reading product manager at Belair.)

internet-only?

[RandyOo]

It is internet only, so email needs to be via a web-based provider."

Since when is internet==port 80 www? I understand that they only provide web access, and that's fine... But "internet-only" doesn't really mean anything!

Re:internet-only?

[Anonymous Coward]

You dummy ... Internet is the blue E. Email is the envelope.

Huh?

[^DA]

It is internet only, so email needs to be via a web-based provider.

Funny, I've always been under the impression that email is part of the internet...maybe I'm wrong

http != the internet

[Gyorg_Lavode]

I'm sure this will be redundant as soon as I post it, but the HTTP is what enables web page browsing. The Internet is the entire network, hardware, software, and protocals.

This is hilarious

[Eric(b0mb)Dennis]

It's an 'internet only' service, but you have to access your email through a www interface...

Sounds how much that PR guy knows about it.. pretty much the problem in general

Free my big fat ass

[Toby The Economist]

"...and the whole area is covered by free wireless internet"

Free? so the council isn't paying for it?

Oh - you mean the council *is* paying for it. So that means it's being paid for by tax.

So...let's get the right; the council has said "we're going to charge you money and provide WiFi and if you don't like what we offer, well that's just too bad - you can pay a second time for a commerical provider (if one dares to come along, given they know that to use their service you'll be paying twice)."

Oh...and it's a State run service. So it's not going to be particularly resistant to things like, say, intelligence service requests for private user information, because it's the State which provides most of the money which the council runs on. Such things aren't likely I'd say to be *overtly* used to influence behaviour in such cases, but you know as well as I do it has a significant influence and is most certainly a conflict of interest - where the people who might ask for information just happen to also be rather closely involved with the people who give you funding.

No - all in all, if it's all the same to you, I'd prefer other people (a council in this case) did *not*, on my behalf, take my money and decide what they want to spend it on. I'd like them to do that as little as possible, because, frankly, I think they don't do a very good job - people are never as diligent or efficient as spending *other* people's money as they are at spending their own.

--
Toby

Re:Free my big fat ass

[robdavy]

"No - all in all, if it's all the same to you, I'd prefer other people (a council in this case) did *not*, on my behalf, take my money and decide what they want to spend it on. I'd like them to do that as little as possible, because, frankly, I think they don't do a very good job - people are never as diligent or efficient as spending *other* people's money as they are at spending their own."

I don't know where you're from (I won't speculate), but in the UK, our Council's (local government) spends a lot of money on various community projects, that maybe effect a few hundred people, and are sometimes of questionable benefit, but they still happen, because they enhance the overall social landscape.

This is a perfectly fine thing to do. The project above maybe cost £50,000 (?) to do, which in the grand scheme is almost nothing.

If the local council had spent that money, say, renovating a lock on a canal way, would you be moaning? It would probably have cost more, and would effect a similiar number of people.
My town has a "Museum" (in the loosest of terms). Is it the best use of the council's money? Probably not, but in the grand scheme of their budget, it's a good thing.

My point is, local government spending a tiny (relatively) ammount of money on something that is not their "core" role is not wrong - it helps make things interesting. Just think of all the non-core things your local government has done recently (think events, renovations, etc).

Re:Free my big fat ass

[raju1kabir]

No - all in all, if it's all the same to you, I'd prefer other people (a council in this case) did *not*, on my behalf, take my money and decide what they want to spend it on.

You must have burst a blood vessel when you discovered the municipal water company bought new potted plants for their lobby without your permission.

This (free wifi in public spaces paid out of my taxes) is exactly the sort of thing I want the government doing more of. It costs me almost nothing and gets people out of their houses. It's genius policy.

So...let's get the right; the council has said "we're going to charge you money and provide WiFi and if you don't like what we offer, well that's just too bad - you can pay a second time for a commerical provider (if one dares to come along, given they know that to use their service you'll be paying twice)."

Twice schmice. Get real; this will cost me a penny a year. A competing commercial service will cost actual money.

Re:Free my big fat ass

[EnglishTim]

Oh...and it's a State run service. So it's not going to be particularly resistant to things like, say, intelligence service requests for private user information, because it's the State which provides most of the money which the council runs on. Such things aren't likely I'd say to be *overtly* used to influence behaviour in such cases, but you know as well as I do it has a significant influence and is most certainly a conflict of interest - where the people who might ask for information just happen to also be rather closely involved with the people who give you funding.

In the UK our personal data is 'protected' by the Data Protection Act, which puts stiff limits on what can be done with our personal data. However, recently diabolical measures were bought in in the name of 'anti-terrorism' which defanged the act somewhat and hugely increased the amount to which government departments can share our data.

So yes, they probably can now share information with the police and other agencies about users, but it won't be some back-handed thing. They've been given that power explicitly by the government.

HTTP only != Internet only

[MooseGuy529]

It is internet only, so email needs to be via a web-based provider.

No. You mean that it has a crappy, overrestrictive firewall that allows access only to the few ports required for HTTP access to web sites. Internet-only would simply suggest that it doesn't allow access to other networks, such as LAN's. Don't get the two mixed up.

I really wish people would stop putting in neutered, free "Internet" access. I use the BPL, and their system allows full access to anything on their LAN, but allows only ports 80 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS), and 53 (SMB!) to the outside world. I asked, and they said the reason they restricted it was that a lot of people liked to come in and screw around with it. The answer to that would seem to be restricting access to the *local* network, and allowing full Internet access, not the other way around! It's a pain in the ass to be able to browse the web but not use IMAP, SSH, or anything other than what the dumb 90% of the population thinks is "teh intarweb".

Re:HTTP only != Internet only

[Alioth]

If they allow port 443 (even via a proxy) you can use ssh. Simply set a remote SSH server up that listens on port 443, and:

ssh user@host -p 443

If it goes via a proxy, you'll need to set up a small program that does the HTTP CONNECT to your ssh server, and then have your ssh client talk to the local program. If you're using an SSH client such as PuTTY, this provides SSH access via proxy, and can do so by many methods, not just HTTP CONNECT on port 443. PuTTY, incidentally, can also act as a local SOCKS proxy and tunnel the entire internet through its ssh connection to your remote server.

The need for editors is ever so clear.

[Caspian]

"An" famous London Street?

This is what editors are for.

Re:The need for editors is ever so clear.

[tveidt]

In Soviet Russia, F's are vowels.

Sorry.

Consider the authors geek badge...

[msimm]

Revoked.

Monitoring

[big water]

Someone may have mentioned this already, but what is the council there doing to monitor what websites people see and what they do (such as filesharing, p0rn etc)? Britain doesn't have the best record on privacy.

What "Internet Only" Means

[kmactane]

"It is internet only, so email needs to be via a web-based provider."

Well, if it's really "Internet only", then there's nothing to worry about. I can use POP on port 110, or IMAP on port 143, to check my email. Then I can send it using SMTP to port 25 on my mail server.

Or I could just SSH to port 22 of my server and read my mail on the command line, if I have a shell account. (Which I personally do, along with, I'm sure, many others here.) Ports 22, 25, 110, 143, and their related protocols are all well-established parts of the Internet; heck, at least two of them predate that newfangled port-80 contraption.

Or did you perhaps mean that it's Web only? Slashdot is the last place I thought I'd ever have to point out: the Web != the Internet.

Enhancing an already attractive street

[Lurks]

It seems to falls to me to say something other than the standard slashdot paranoid naysaying.

Upper Street is a very nice place and it's packed with an unfeasibly large number bars and restaurants, much of which are spilling out onto the pavement (sidewalk for Americans) at this time of year.

I can think of no better place than to have wifi access for free. It makes Upper street quite an attractive weekend haunt for me now as well as being a damn near perfect location for informal business meetings. Hooray!

I think this is a genuinely good thing for the area and it's heartening to see a council give something back for our ever-soaring rates. Of course I do wonder if some of the businesses wont start getting a little annoyed by the wifi camper syndrome - Eg someone who takes up a table and chair and sits on a coffee for 2 hours.

I guess the bars and restaurants will have to find ways of dealing with that too.

editors?

[jpardey]

Oh, editors. I have been reading slashdot too long... thought you meant EMACS or VI... didn't remember that there was another kind.

"Private" Streetlamp Wi-Fi Networks

[lxt]

I live in the UK, in Bristol (a largish city south of London) - and we too have these street mounted wi-fi boxes. Judging from the picture, they look like they're the same model too.

However, there's one important difference - ours are for use solely by the council, primarily traffic wardens, and are completely closed. I have a sneaking feeling they're also something to do with the multitude of street CCTV cameras that went up at the same time, but maybe not. Don't know whether they'd ever consider opening them up, but it's by no means unique.

Pornography complaints?

[Bill Walker]

So how long will it take before someone complains about being taxed to provide free porn and hate speech to children? Will the government be forced to censor the service it provides?

Not so sure about London, but this would definitely come up in Alexandria. I can just hear the professionally outraged journalists on News at Eleven now...

Factual correction ...

[The_Quinn]

London Street is now coverered by a free municipal wireless hotspot

the first local government to offer alfresco Web surfing at no charge.

With respect to "free" stuff from the government:

Bear in mind that governments do not produce anything. They can only take from some people and give to others (Usually through taxation). NOTHING a goverment produces is "free"!

Can a WiMax zone sustain many competing telcos?

[NASAWatch.INFO]

Might anyone here perhaps know how many different phone companies could likely compete within a particular zone of a WiMax-covered area? This question is technically (as opposed to socioeconomically) oriented. Major phone companies are trying to hog up the spectrum all for themselves, in various places worldwide. They say that letting in too many players would cause interference and ruin it for everybody. Verizon's probably the biggest culprit in the USA, from what I've been told. For more info. on WiMax, here are some sites: WiMax.com WiMaxxed.com Intel.com (Rosedale chip) Nokia.com (just teamed up with Intel yesterday)

Re:1984

[acb]

Owning or using a SUV in a city as tightly packed as London *should* be an offence (though perhaps not a capital one). There is no reason to drive oversized, fuel-inefficient personal monster trucks in a city which has narrow streets and perfectly usable public transport. At the very least, those who choose to do so out of personal choice should pay some extra tax to offset the inconvenience and increased pollution they are imposing on the other people they share a city with.

So old-fashioned...

[WombatDeath]

Oh, it's just that you lot tend to be a bit technologically backward. Here in the UK we've been routing our emails through wormholes for years. Granted, it's a bit of a bitch when your resignation email arrives in your manager's inbox before you've actually decided to quit your job. And a 'Dear Jane' email arriving mid-coitus can dampen the mood somewhat. But on the plus side, I do enjoy the spam I get from green, triple-breasted Martian women.