Square Mile gains Wi-Fi everywhere

Within six months the City of London will be unwired

The prospect of wireless LAN ubiquity in the UK has moved a step closer with the announcement that the City of London will within six months be saturated with Wi-Fi connections.

The financial services hub will gain 140 to 160 hotspots to cover the area that is slightly larger than a square mile. Street furniture including signage and lamp-posts will be used to accommodate the necessary hardware.

The services will be implemented by The Cloud, the wireless operator that already partners with BT to offer Wi-Fi in bars, hotels and other public places.

In January, The Cloud announced plans to cover cities including Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester and some London boroughs. It already has blanket coverage in London’s Canary Wharf business village.

Some watchers believe that the scene is now set for Wi-Fi to be available throughout urban conurbations.

“I think we’ll see the same here as what Google is doing in San Francisco,” said Anette Schaefer {correct}, director of broadband at analyst firm Yankee Group.

However, some observers warn that the increasing importance of Wi-Fi in business communications will require more attention to usage policies, network access control and personal firewalls.

“We see a lot of situations where network security goes when that notebook walks out of the door,” said Sal Viveros, security expert.

Separately, The Business newspaper last week reported that BT is also in talks with foreign carriers to put in place Wi-Fi roaming agreements for voice calls. That could reduce significantly the cost of business calls abroad by bypassing cellular networks.

However, Wi-Fi tariffs remain high and many hardware makers appear to be hedging their wireless bets. Intel, for example, sees a combination of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular and WiMax technologies being used in notebook and handheld devices being developed for the next couple of years.