UK airports get wireless access

Standsted first of six to get WiFi

London Stansted has become the first of six major UK airports to go live with wireless broadband access in its terminals today as part of a deal between the British Airports Authority (BAA) and WiFi specialist The Cloud.

Heathrow, Gatwick, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Southampton will all go live with similar networks by the end of March.

The partnership will allow BAA to meet the growing demand among business and leisure travellers for access to wireless broadband services, says Duncan Tolson, the authority's director of commercial telecoms and media.

'BAA has provided WiFi to passengers for the past three years and this new partnership allows more service provider customers to access the network than ever before,' he said.

Over 140 million passengers pass through BAA airports each year, with business users needing access to email, low cost VoIP telephone calls and internet access, and leisure customers increasingly using wireless for gaming and music downloads.