London's Soho to Get Blanket 802.11 for Voice & Data

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/59/30404.html' target='_blank'>http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/59/30404.html</a><br /><br /></div>"London's City of Westminster Council is to bring 802.11b wireless networking to the streets of Soho. The scheme, dubbed the Westminster 4G project, will initially provide Wi-Fi connectivity for council operatives and remote systems. But in a direct challenge to ISPs and the UK's wired and mobile telcos, the Conservative-led Council plans to extend the network to provide data and voice services to the public."<br /><br />Good news if you're in the London Soho area! This time next year, I wonder if we'll see more of these roll-outs, or if they will be failed experiments. What do you think?

[ricksfiona]

I think it's great. But their telcos are going to have major issues with it and will probably force this project to a grinding hault.

[Tom W.M.]

I think it's great. But their telcos are going to have major issues with it and will probably force this project to a grinding hault.
Yeah. Just imagine the outrage if the government tried to be an ISP in the US! 8O
I wonder how they are going to deal with things like interference and hackers?

[Duncan]

Provided the council extend the service to everyone in the area there isn't a thing that the mobile phone company can do. Other councils in the UK are planning similar things... proof that things can be better in our 'regulated' society! :)

Of course one of the things that Soho is (in)famous for is prostitution, sex shops and peepshows - could bring some entirely new uses to WiFi networks!

[Sslixtis]

Yeah this could work, but I shudder to think what happens when they kill off the private carriers, then in a budget crunch decide to save money by getting rid of that frivolous WiFi endeavor! And would we really want Big Brother as our ISP? Then they wouldn't even have to work at reading our mail, they'd already have it. *Shudder* Too many "bad things" could happen with that degree of control over my access to the Net.

Make the Bad Man leave me alone! :twak:

Am I paranoid? :worried:

[Duncan]

Yeah this could work, but I shudder to think what happens when they kill off the private
carriers, then in a budget crunch decide to save money by getting rid of that frivolous WiFi endeavor! An
d would we really want Big Brother as our ISP? Then they wouldn't even have to work at reading our mail,
they'd already have it. *Shudder* Too many "bad things" could happen with that degree of control ove
r my access to the Net.

Make the Bad Man leave me alone! :twak:

Am I paranoid? :worried:

Yes. You are!:)

This isn't big government trying to control things.

This is local government (and the very lowest rung of local government at that) experimenting with providing WiFi hotspots as a service pretty much in the same way as they provide swimming baths and libraries.

Plus - government regs mean they will have to give the contracts to private companies and will need to turn a profit.

I like the idea of councils across the UK making sure that there is universal WiFi access - in the same way I know that wherever I live there will be street lighting and dustbins emptied once a week!

Hard to see this anything but good! :)

[Nellwaskilled]

eh, before long a group of kids can blanket the entire neighboorhood with WiFi using lunch money.

How long is Soho's main street anyway? 10-15kms?

[Sslixtis]

Hey, I'm all for it in the UK. :lol:

Besides my distrust of ANY government agency (I'm very Jeffersonian), I just don't see a country the size of the US being able to do this effectively. As in most cases Size Matters! Britain has 59,000,000 people living in the area the size of a state. While the US has 290,000,000 people, we have most of a Continent to cover. :wink: Same reason you guys are ahead of us in 3G. :cry:

Besides you guys are supposed to show us heathen capitalists how to do things!

[andrewlwood]

Soho is a very small section of London really - much less than 10km long. I haven't measured it, but I'd say 3km max.

Maybe I'm too altruistic, but I don't see this as a bad big brother thing, rather a pioneering gift horse (hats off to NYC as well) which we shouldn't look in the mouth. I live in Hong Kong at the moment, where public wifi is excellent (not free, but excellent), and I'm so pleased that if and when I return home, its going to be to a wireless aware culture. Don't know how I lived without it (would have spent a fortune on newspapers, anyway).

Imagine the possibility for advertising as well. You could pay for this with locally-targeted adverts - walking through soho, you get a popup/login with a theatre or restaurant which is less than 5 minutes walk away. Very Minority Report.

[GregWard]

walking through soho, you get a popup/login with a theatre or restaurant which is less than 5 minutes walk away. Very Minority Report.

Well you'd certainly get pop-ups - but I don't think they'd just be for Restaurants in Soho! :oops:

[Ben]

Another thing to bear in mind is that since most councils don't have enough money to pay teachers, street sweepers and for road repairs (or so they tell us) there are going to be very few that can afford to blanket an area with 802.11x coverage even if it could become a money making venture in the future!