Free wifi in London streets ?!
London, the 18th most expensive city in the world is going
to set the largest free wireless hub in Europe! Where about? More precisely in
Central London in the boroughs of Chelsea, Kensington and also in Westminster,
the area where you can find famous landmarks like Buckingham Palace,
Westminster abbey, Westminster Palace… and this at no expense to the councils,
to taxpayers and to the visitors.
The councils opted for this plan to make London visitors
live their best experience in the capital of England. Also, businesses located
in these boroughs will be able to take advantage of it.
The network provided by the operator O2 has started to be
set on street furniture in January.
Coffee shops like Starbucks or even fast food restaurants
are currently offering free wifi through BT Openzone or The Cloud, but London
councils want to give the opportunity to get the Internet in the street for
free; there will now be no need to go get a coffee or meal to be able to use a
‘free’ connection.
This plan isn’t at random as it comes at a very important
year for London.
Indeed, the capital of England will be celebrating the
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Games, and it is expecting to welcome
millions of tourists.
Free wifi = Enabling visitors to promote instantaneously
London as a destination through social networking sites?
Image: CNET UK
To us students, it seems that Internet has become a necessity
and social media has a part to play in this need. Without making any generality,
more and more Internet users have a facebook or twitter account, and very
often the first thing we do when we get online, is to check our profile to see
if we have any ‘likes’ ‘comments’ ‘messages’ ‘friend request’ or what is
happening for friends who are abroad etc.
Considering this fact and the growing use of social media
and apps such as Pinterest (a pinboard-style social photo
sharing website), we can imagine that the visitors being in London for
the Olympics Games will share their trip, experience, on their blogs, facebook
or twitter accounts…
So for us, it seems that free wifi in London streets will enhance the
promotion of the destination.
But as we are experienced with Internet low signals in
public places, will this ‘street network’ handle so many connections at the
same time?
We will get the answer to that question in July :)
By Jennifer & William
By Jennifer & William
Retrieved from the article 'Europe's largest free wi-fi zone set for London following 'landmark' O2 deal' (James Richard, Metro UK, 01/06/12)
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