The City of London Corporation is planning blanket WiFi coverage for the whole of the Square Mile, London’s financial district.

Run in partnership with WiFi specialist The Cloud, the network is expected to be 90 per cent complete by August.

WiFi hotspots will be fitted to street furniture such as lamp-posts and street signs, providing anyone in the area with wireless access to the internet.

Peter Bennett, deputy city surveyor for the City of London Corporation, says it decided to install WiFi after learning of similar projects in cities such as San Francisco and Philadelphia.

‘We’ve been looking at WiFi for about a year or so. The City has always been a focal point for communications, right back from Roman times through to modern transport and the need for advanced IT systems,’ he said.

The network will include wireless voice over IP that will allow telephone calls to be made from suitable mobiles at a fraction of current network call rates.

‘We asked the business community, and they told us that what was particularly needed was an integrated wireless network that enables quick access to the web and can be used across the City,’ said Bennett.