Virgin Media to offer free WiFi in London
Virgin Media's proposal would see Londoners getting access to a free 0.5Mb/sec WiFi connection.
According to The Telegraph, Virgin Media's chief executive, Neil Berkett, told investors that he was optimistic the rollout would occur 'in the not too distant future.'
The proposal would offer free a meagre 0.5Mb/sec WiFi to everyone, although Virgin Media broadband customers would be able to tap into a far healthier 10Mb/sec service. Berkett stated that lacklustre 3G speeds and a demand for faster access for mobile devices were key motives, as well as the delayed 4G service leaving a gap in the market.
The firm intends to install WiFi routers in its existing infrastructure, and is in talks with the councils to pave the way for the work needed.
Currently, other blanket WiFi networks include BT's Openzone, where BT customers share their own WiFi bandwidth with passers-by, who then gain free access. However, non-BT customers can be charged up to £5.99 for 90 minutes of browsing using BT's own hotspots, or the WiFi of participating customers.
Would a free WiFi network be useful to you alongside your current mobile data plan? Would you consider signing up to Virgin Media's broadband service to be able to tap into the 10Mb/sec service? Let us know in the forums.
Previous Article
18 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyI don't see how it couldn't be.
They say because the customers are using to much data now and sending less mss messages and that it generated more data than expected. That is one year after they spread FREE 'fair use' internet data with new phone subscriptions in the first place! And now when everybody has it they blame the customers and created unbearable subscriptions, it was one big consumer devildeal rippoff...
And after all of that, service with be patchy at best, high latency, and heavily over subscribed.
TBH I think VM should just focus on increasing my 50mb connection to the 100mb package I was promised would have been available to me months ago.
TSB
Loving it!
This is pretty annoying - my work has an open wifi network for clients called "Guest", which my phone happily connects to, but if I go anywhere else which has a network called "Guest" (and trust me there are a lot of them), it will merrily connect and sit at the gateway page. Quite frustrating! In the end I gave up trying to get my IT department to rename the guest network to something more sensible, and just got my phone to forget it - 3G is slow and patchy in the office, but better than finding out after a couple of hours in a pub with a gateway protected similarly named network that an urgent e-mail hasn't come through...
because even at .5mb/s people are going to be illegally downloading things, that is depending on IP restrictions and security in place
Umm.. more to the internet than illegally downlaoding stuff. Maybe no body should have internet and then there would be nobody illegally downlaoding
I don't download illegally myself, but that doesn't mean I'm not opposed to the act, Virgin themselves have stated that although they agree with governemnent focusing on copyright infringement they disagree with the punitive measures that the act enables, the persuasion not punishment argument as old as time.
I just don't see how this would be a real problem or have downsides, with one exception. If this 2.4ghz blanketing of the city is going to mess up existing networks. There is already a ton of wifi interference in cities and I am just wondering how much worse this might make things.
Would love to have something similar in Seattle. It's a win/win/win situation, the provider gets an increase in susbscribers as customers desire full speed access, the city offers incentives for visitors and potential residents, and customers obviously get the joy of wide spread internet accessibility.
Shame I don't live in London, but good to see this kind of thing is kicking off.