O2 To Create Europe's Largest Free WiFi Network In London

**Neo** · 09-01-2012, 01:42 AM

O2 has announced that it will create Europe's largest free WiFi network in London.
The service will be rolled out in 2012 in Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea.

The mobile phone operator says that millions of people will be able to enjoy the new service, free of charge and "make the most of what London has to offer".
The service will cost nothing for taxpayers, and will be powered by technology installed on street furniture including lampposts.

Councillor Philippa Roe from Westminster City Council, said: "Westminster welcomes over a million tourists a day, is home to 250,000 residents, employs over half a million people and sees 4,000 business starts-ups each year.
"Visitors to London will easily be able to share their pictures and updates of the Olympic events across social networking sites."

The Metro network will be installed starting this month, and will slowly be rolled out across the city. O2 said it expects the network to be installed by march.
O2 says it the system will be available in time for the Olympic games.

Derek McManus, chief operating officer for O2, said: "Our longer-term aim is to expand our footprint of O2 wi-fi, which is open to everyone, and also intelligently enhance our services at street level, where people need the network the most."

O2 To Create Europe's Largest Free WiFi Network In Lond

**harrybarracuda** · 09-01-2012, 09:36 AM

Surely they aren't just doing this for good will. Are they paying off Westminster Council to get a big contract?

**Neo** · 09-01-2012, 07:33 PM

I guess they're looking at the long term, getting their equipment and their network in place first and renting high bandwidth (throughput) channels to corporate clients as well as using it to testbed and debug for later franchises. No doubt the low bandwidth offered to the public will also be crammed with advertising.

**harrybarracuda** · 09-01-2012, 09:05 PM

Originally Posted by Neo

I guess they're looking at the long term, getting their equipment and their network in place first and renting high bandwidth (throughput) channels to corporate clients as well as using it to testbed and debug for later franchises. No doubt the low bandwidth offered to the public will also be crammed with advertising.

You're not wrong....

As for what O2 gains from the deal, it explained the model includes hosting advertising on the O2 Wi-Fi landing page, which will be relevant and targeted to the area.

and

One answer could be advertising embedded in the access in a year when London will be enjoying a huge boom in visitors. The boroughs chosen are also among the wealthiest in the whole of the UK, prime territory to promote O2’s paid services.

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