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London Is Still World's Wi-Fi Access Point Capital

Posted by timothy on from the home-of-the-apostrophe dept.

ISP Review UK writes "The latest annual Wireless Security Survey from RSA has revealed that London is still the world's wireless network (Wi-Fi) capital, with a total of 12,276 access points detected, exceeding the number found in New York City by more than 3,000. However, the French capital of Paris broke all the records with a 543% year-over-year increase in the number of wireless access points, which compares with London's 72% (down from 160% last year) and New York City's 45% (down from 49%). The survey also examined how many of the wireless access points detected were secured with some form of encryption (hotspots excluded). In New York City, 97% of corporate access points had encryption in place (76% last year). In Paris, 94% of corporate access points were encrypted — although in London, 20% of all business access points continue to be completely unprotected."

7 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hard to believe by Der+PC · · Score: 3, Informative

    Access Point != Free hotSpot

    London actually has the least HotSpots of the three cities surveyed.

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  2. they sure aren't usable... by YesIAmAScript · · Score: 5, Informative

    I went to NYC in summer and took an iPod Touch. Everywhere I went, there were 2 or 3 networks, often some open, often over 8 networks.

    I went to London and Paris last month and took an iPod Touch. I'd open it and usually get no networks at all. It was odd going to a coffee shop and seeing no networks. Sometimes, if you went into them, there'd be a T-Mobile network, but it required you pay.

    I ended up getting no real use at all out of the iPod Touch other than the London Underground map I preloaded into it.

    London and Paris need to learn of this idea of free WiFi.

    London also needs to understand the idea of running their subway all night. It was insane that I had to take a taxi to St. Pancras because the train to Paris was boarding before the tube started running for the day.

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    1. Re:they sure aren't usable... by xaxa · · Score: 2, Informative

      There are very few subways that run all night. The New York Subway was build with four tunnels for each line -- at night, only two are needed, so maintenance can be done on the other two. The London Underground only has two tracks for each line, so they have to shut at night for maintenance. It's annoying.

      There are lots of night buses, many of them running as often as every 10-15 minutes all night (but if you want to go to outer London it might only be every half hour). They're quite safe to use, and the same price as a daytime journey (90p). Many routes are getting voice+LED announcements, so you know where to get off too. And there's not much traffic at night either.

      Here's the night buses that go past St Pancras station.

      I'd like to see more trams in London. And I'd like to see less cars too, and more bikes.

    2. Re:they sure aren't usable... by Mr_Silver · · Score: 3, Informative

      London also needs to understand the idea of running their subway all night. It was insane that I had to take a taxi to St. Pancras because the train to Paris was boarding before the tube started running for the day.

      Slightly OT but the reason they don't is because the geniuses that designed it didn't consider a second backup tunnel. Therefore if they want to do any kind of engineering work (and they do, as the UK loves the idea of running something without maintenance until it spectaculary breaks down) then they have to close the whole tunnel down.

      There has been pressure to run the underground later on Friday and Saturday evenings but due to the large amount of work required on the tunnels (see why in paragraph above), this doesn't seem to get off the ground.

      Oh, it also means that the slightest break-down or signal failure (of which there are a lot, again see why in paragraph above) then it brings the entire service to a grinding halt. Which is always handy at 8am on a Monday morning.

      Finally free public WiFi anywhere in the UK (let alone London) is a rarity. So much so I was rather surprised to find one in Kingston one afternoon.

      (Which explains why you don't see many people out with their iPod Touches surfing the web)

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  3. That's it? by repvik · · Score: 3, Informative

    I found more than a thousand wifi networks walking down Oxford street with a PDA this spring, and London only has ~12k wifi networks?

  4. Stupid by nedlohs · · Score: 4, Informative

    From my NYC apartment my laptop picks up 39 wireless networks. If I take it down 40 floors to the street I detect 3.

    I can guess where they measured from...

  5. Re:Misleading: They only went to Paris, London &am by jrumney · · Score: 2, Informative

    The official city of Paris has 2 million, but the metropolitain area more like 11 million. London has 7.5 million, and the metropolitain area 13 million.

    And to complicate things further, the City of London has a resident population of 7.8 THOUSAND.