London to Turn 'Every Lamppost' into WiFi Hotspot
London's mayor, Boris Johnson, has said that plans to blanket the city in WiFi by 2012 will involve putting a WiFi router or repeater in every lamppost and bus stop in England's capital.
Over the years, we've heard several plans to turn towns or cities in giant WiFi hotspots and each time, we've become suitably excited. Imagine never having to fight for a power outlet and make a $3 cup of coffee last three hours while you finish that assignment; you could work from a bench at the park instead! Unfortunately, plans for citywide WiFi in San Francisco didn't quite work out and Philadelphia's city WiFi was shut off because the operator, EarthLink, deemed it too costly to continue. The history of citywide WiFi is a depressing one, so we're skeptical of anyone who says they're going to employ municipal WiFi.
However, London might be different. The city is hosting the Olympics in 2012 and aside from City Hall wanting to earn London the title of "Technology Capital of the World," Boris Johnson is eager to have everything in place before thousands of athletes, tourists and workers descend on the city.
Speaking at a Google event, Johnson said, "London is the home of technological innovation. We in City Hall are doing our best to keep up, and one of our most important projects is called WiFi London," adding that, "Every lamppost and every bus stop will one day very soon, and before the 2012 Olympics, be WiFi enabled."
City Hall has yet to announce any pricing for the scheme, but the blanket of WiFi will reportedly provide both residential homes and those commuting with access to the Internet. Boris said 22 boroughs have already signed up for the project so interest is clearly not an issue and use of the service when the project launches in 2012 is likely to be extremely high because of the sheer number of people in London at the time of the Olympics. It will be interesting to see what happens to usage once the Olympic games have finished and everyone has flown home. The reason the Philadelphia WiFi was switched off was because not enough people were using it to make the cost worthwhile.
Read the full story on London's WiFi project here.
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They might as well, they got a camera just about every ware one can go.
They might as well, they got a camera just about every ware one can go.
Haha same idea. "Well they already have it wired with camera's so shouldn't be too hard to do"
That will be great if it is free or charge for a small fee. If that happen i'll cancel my cell phone contract with data plan and use skype all the way.
It'll be cool to have Wifi available everywhere. It is a shame it is in a city like London though..
It'll be cool to have Wifi available everywhere. It is a shame it is in a city like London though..
A shame?
You mean it's a shame they don't have it elsewhere right? Not that the fact London will get it is a shame?
Wifi hotspots? I hate hotspots.... Just make em free....please?
if each lamppost is a hotspots, does this mean if i am travelling down the street with 10 lamppost, it needs to disconnect/reconnect at every lamppost?
Bought damn time.
I can see where this could be a use vs abuse battle.
Ultimate torrent privacy...
"Radiation Capital of the World" _might_ be a title given in the future, due to health concerns about Wifi. We've installed many Wifi networks for business, and uninstalled many because some are switching back to the traditional cat5 environment because employees are reportedly unable to work near Wifi, which is causing loss of revenue for that business. I'm unconvinced that Wifi is yet safe. The choice is individual, but do a little research first.
if each lamppost is a hotspots, does this mean if i am travelling down the street with 10 lamppost, it needs to disconnect/reconnect at every lamppost?
no, if they all have the same SID, the connection will handoff from one to another. Or atleast thats how my home repeater works with my iPod
"It will be interesting to see what happens to usage once the Olympic games have finished and everyone has flown home."
I believe the population of Greater London is around 12 million, I'm not sure everyone is going to leave after the Olympics!
Hacker's heaven!!
Ultimate torrent privacy...
I could not agree more, Thats why no matter where I live I can always find someone who has not secured their wireless and then use dd-wrt on my linksys to create a repeater network for which all my activity will show up on their ip.
Free internet? I bet it will be slow. But still, it's free.
"Radiation Capital of the World" _might_ be a title given in the future, due to health concerns about Wifi. We've installed many Wifi networks for business, and uninstalled many because some are switching back to the traditional cat5 environment because employees are reportedly unable to work near Wifi, which is causing loss of revenue for that business. I'm unconvinced that Wifi is yet safe. The choice is individual, but do a little research first.
This just in...crazy old British man runs naked through the streets with a tinfoil hat...
Good , but sad.
Increase of Cancer will be found after few years of this project.
Just like cellphones ....
This world is going so crazy.
Dont tell me It will not cause cancer because it still new and routers isnt like the Cellphones thingy...
They will explore it in 5 years.
Yeah, I too am thinking piracy. I wouldn't send any personal photos through their network though...
How will IPs in London get contracts from its users then?
Are you sure that's what Boris said? I would've expected him to call it Wiffi-waffi or something.
Greater London's population is currently about 7.5 - 7.6m so you'd think there'd be some users in such a highly populated area.
So who and how will benefit from this please? Do we really need yet another source of radiation? Can't we already surf the net (at a very competitive price) with existing network from mobile providers?
Oh, and while we are at it:
"Germany Questions Google's Data ''Accident''"
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Google [...] -6816.html
Digital Economy Bill + Piracy is the responsibility of the network owner = This???? /confused
No one knows the effects of WiFi but everyone is rushing to implement it everywhere. It could turn out in 10 years that it has given everyone cancer.
It won't be free and it won't be anonymous. It won't be a public ISP, it'll simply be leased out to ISPs and you'll use your ISP account that you're paying for. The only difference is you'll be able to use it anywhere.
No one knows the effects of WiFi but everyone is rushing to implement it everywhere. It could turn out in 10 years that it has given everyone cancer.
I hope you get cancer right now.
I can barely afford a new AP for my house, how will the city afford THOUSANDS of high-quality (as in, decent sustained signal output) ones for every lamp post in the current economic climate, while everyone ELSE is looking to make cuts?
And will they be N? I mean, surely dual band N will save money as the longer range will require less overall APs to be put up.
this just pisses me off, they wont upgrade my exchange to ADSL 2
but they can put wifi in every fricking lamp post, do they have any idea how many lap posts there in london.
What's to stop someone from pinching them? We all know a Londoner will nab anything /jk
I hope you get cancer right now.
Your sick!
While many may not agree with some theories about the radiation of wifi, there are studies showing that there is an increased risk of cancer and some studies that oppose that view. But with new technology like this where there has not been conclusive studies either way I think that care should be taken in the possition of the hotspots, espially considering the thin skull of young children and babies and the fact that their brains are still developing.
this just makes sense. who needs lights these days!