UK cities get blanket Wi-Fi coverage

Seven cities across the UK are to get blanket Wi-Fi coverage following an announcement by Wi-Fi hotspot provider The Cloud.

3 January 2006 23:35 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Seven cities across the UK are to get blanket Wi-Fi coverage following an announcement by Wi-Fi hotspot provider The Cloud.

Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Oxford, and Cambridge are to get the coverage first with Islington, Camden and Kensington in London also benefiting from the announcement.

About 500 BT payphones and places such as pubs, coffee shops and train stations will be fitted with discrete Wi-Fi boxes to create a "cloud" of coverage.

Initially, access will be available to BT Openzone, O2, SkypeZones and Nintendo WiFi subscribers although other wireless internet service providers are expected to be announced later in the year, along with further cities.

The Cloud which has some 6,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK, Sweden and Germany is hoping to have the services full running by March this year.

Full tags

Software, Broadband, BT, Wi-Fi