The City of London has extended its Wi-Fi service contract for another five years, and requested that the network is upgraded to support a quadrupling in wireless capacity.
The Wi-Fi service contract, which has been in place with The Cloud since 2007, provides city workers with outdoor coverage for the Square Mile that makes up the City of London. The service is offered free for the first 15 minutes, with a charge of £2 for 24-hour connectivity. BSkyB bought The Cloud earlier this year.
Peter Bennett, a surveyor at the City Corporation, told USwitch that it was essential for London's financial community to have a modern communications infrastructure to retain its position in the world.
"We've been pleased with the service provided by The Cloud since its Wi-Fi network was first installed in 2007, so upgrading the network and extending our relationship was a swift decision to make," he said
The Cloud is the largest provider of free public access WiFi in the UK with around 5,000 hotspots. The company said, according to the Independent newspaper, that the upgrade to more capable Wi-Fi technology was becoming critical following a huge rise in demand for data by smartphone and tablet users, and more people visiting the Square Mile.
For more:
- see this USwitch article
- see this Independent article
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