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London Could Soon Get Free Wi-Fi Everywhere

Posted by samzenpus on from the have-a-bit-of-internet dept.

fangmcgee writes "London could soon be covered with a free public WiFi network as Virgin Media moves to challenge BT's Openzone network. Virgin Media's network would be freely available to anyone at 0.5Mbps, and to subscribers to its home broadband at speeds up to a blistering 10Mbps. The proposals would see WiFi routers installed in each of the company's street-side cabinets, which distribute its cable network to homes and businesses."

16 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. 3 Cheers for Entrepreneurs with Testicles. by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

    Looks like Sir Richard Branson is kicking the establishment's ass... AGAIN.

    What happened to the USA that WE don't seem to have many people like this anymore? Where are they? Why don't they step up?

    Burt Rutan was one. He's retired now. A well-deserved retirement. And I don't think it's a coincidence that he and Branson found each other.

    1. Re:3 Cheers for Entrepreneurs with Testicles. by interkin3tic · · Score: 2

      What happened to the USA that WE don't seem to have many people like this anymore?

      We do.

      True, it's not giving away wifi to a major metro area like New York, but the Google guys don't count as entrepreneurs that kick the establishment's ass and, er, have testicles? Because while Virgin is giving away free internet, and that's nice, Google is giving me free maps and free* e-mail that's much better than the e-mail service I had before.

    2. Re:3 Cheers for Entrepreneurs with Testicles. by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 2

      London is largest metropolitan area by population in the EU

      And :
      NYC 8,175,133
      London 7,825,200

      So yes it is worth it ...

      --
      Puteulanus fenestra mortis
    3. Re:3 Cheers for Entrepreneurs with Testicles. by dkf · · Score: 2

      London is largest metropolitan area by population in the EU

      And :
      NYC 8,175,133
      London 7,825,200

      So yes it is worth it ...

      Not just that, Eurostat reckons that London's over 11 million people in size (it's bigger than its official boundaries) and even that is probably an underestimation. (OTOH, NYC is probably bigger than the official 8-and-a-bit million above too.)

      Measuring the size of cities is surprisingly difficult.

      --
      "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
    4. Re:3 Cheers for Entrepreneurs with Testicles. by jkflying · · Score: 2

      Ok. I keep hearing about them, but never see any examples. Could you please give a few examples of these actions they've taken that make their "Do No Evil" slogan invalid? Customizing ads based on email content? Facebook starts giving you ads for wedding rings if you've been in a relationship for over a year. Truth to tell, I'd rather have relevant ads, because then I might actually find them useful. The censorship in China? If I remember correctly, Google fought against it long and hard. Eventually they agreed, rather than being booted out of China, and it is the Chinese government that is doing the Great Firewall of China, not Google. Patents? Google doesn't go around threatening to sue little people.

      So, what are all these bad things Google has done?

      If anything, the real error Google has made is not having a team to cover up all the FUD that the internet tends to spawn...

      --
      Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
    5. Re:3 Cheers for Entrepreneurs with Testicles. by jkflying · · Score: 2

      You install AdBlock Plus in the web browser that Google designed, and those ads disappear. Unless you want to wear tinfoil hats...
      Seriously.

      --
      Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
  2. Re:Public? by arth1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    TFA subhead says "public", but it is actually a privately owned service.

    Like public houses and public schools, you mean?

  3. Speed by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 4, Informative

    freely available to anyone at 0.5Mbps

    So the same speed as what paying customers receive right now :P

    --
    Summation 2
    1. Re:Speed by AC-x · · Score: 2

      Actually credit where credit is due their broadband service has been pretty good for me, I regularly hit 1.5+ meg/sec on my 20mbit line.

  4. Re:Not even considering WiFi congestion... by Fjandr · · Score: 2

    The headline is more than likely directed toward the US demographic, where the only thing higher than about 15Mbps is if you're lucky enough to live in one of the few cities with fiber service.

  5. Tourists by RivenAleem · · Score: 2

    This is going to be great for the tourist industry. Being able to advertise that all of London has free wifi will encourage people to visit. I was in Paris recently and trying to find a particular restaurant. I don't have a WAP phone (and if I had I'd be annoyed at the roaming charges) but I has my iPod Touch. I stalked about looking for an unsecured wifi to try load up google maps, and eventually found a McDonalds free hotspot. If what Virgin is planning to offer had been available I'd be able to open my maps anywhere and follow it right to my destination. Add to that Skype/Google voice, email, web searching etc. and it will boost London's attractiveness for tourists.

    1. Re:Tourists by zippthorne · · Score: 2

      That's the thing that bugs me about the iPod Touch: It always assumes you have an internet connection.

      You could've made things work by hopping from wifi to wifi if it bothered caching things a little bit. Like, the maps app caching a half-mile radius of its max detail around you, so that the wifi finder app would have a place to paint its cached store. Or the restaurant finder apps caching a few megabytes worth of restaurant info. (which my guess, would cover well over a half-mile...)

      Even the smallest iPod touch for sale right now has over 8 GB of space, it can't spare a few megs to cache a little map data? or a few pre-fetched web pages? Seriously?

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  6. Re:Public? by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Funny

    TFA subhead says "public", but it is actually a privately owned service.

    Like public houses and public schools, you mean?

    And I've been called a "public nuisance" but nobody owns me.

  7. Re:Would have been nice... by tehcyder · · Score: 2

    Free wifi has kind of gone by the wayside in the UK. It was a nice idea five years ago, when many people used wifi to get online. Most people now have 3G, which is more convenient since you don't need to actually be near somewhere that "does wifi".

    Except that 3G is pathetically slow most of the time. Maybe it's diferent in London, but certainly in the countryside in the Uk it's barely usable.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  8. Re:Anonymous by Pax681 · · Score: 2

    Expect many vans, GCHQ tracking and Forward Intelligence Teams to be all over this wonderful "free" gift :) All the CCTV and databases waiting as you type away, for free, sharing your MAC, ip, passwords, unique browser data and a nice face pic when you look up. They have your online interests, face, track your car via OCR, your friends with you ... all for free and in the open. If you make a VoIP call - your voice print too - enjoy your free anonymous laptop use in London.

    and changing/spoofing a MAC address is soo hard.. erm.... not really
    http://www.klcconsulting.net/Change_MAC_w2k.htm
    http://amac.paqtool.com/
    i could go on... but you get the point

  9. Free WiFi EVERYWHERE in London? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2

    Cor.

    That goes along well wif' our surveillance cameras, dunnit'?

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."