Soho is first London district to go wireless

London's Soho will be the UK's first wireless broadband district thanks to the Westminster 4G plan for smart council services.

Westminster City Council hopes to install the first 802.11b wireless node in the area by the end of this month, and plans to distribute 2000 nodes across the West End and government district by the end of next year.

High-speed public access to the internet will start appearing by the end of the year, says West End councillor Ian Wilder.

'We will have less problems than some of the 3G suppliers are having and this will compete very nicely with 3G,' he said.

Council staff will be able to access local authority systems while they are out and about on the job, and in real time using networked handheld devices.

The network will be used for a whole range of council functions including supporting Soho's CCTV network, keeping in touch with elderly residents, supervising cleaning and litter regulations and noise monitoring requirements, says Wilder.

'The council has spent £2m installing 30 CCTV cameras but from now on we won't have to spend as much for those services because the broadband network can carry images.

'It won't all happen at once but as we build the systems we will plug them all in,' said Wilder.

The system will improve efficiency and cut costs by reducing bureaucracy. The project is expected to cost around £15m.

Similar technology was rolled out in selected areas of New York last year.