London a top city for Wi-Fi with 461 hotspots

We beat the Big Apple and the City of Light

15 June 2007 17:26 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Research commissioned by security experts RSA has revealed London to be a top city for Wi-Fi access.

The number of wireless access points - including public hotspots and business networks - continues to rise at an explosive rate in the world's major financial centres but the largest year-on-year increase in wireless take up was found in London, where there are 160% more wireless access points than in 2006.

The percentage increase in New York was a substantial 49%; and in Paris, 44%.

Looking purely at business access points, London also leads, with a 180% leap over last year, as compared to jumps of 57% and 45% New York and Paris, respectively.

When looking at encrypted or WEP-protected networks, London showed notable improvment on the same research carried out last year, but the results did highlight some patchy areas of security for business wireless networks.

Public hotspots continue to grow in the many places where people want connectivity, such as coffee shops, airports and hotels.

Last year's research detected 364 wireless hotspots on the London route by 2007 this figure had risen to 461 - a 27% increase.