Nokia dips toe in free Wi-Fi waters, again Nokia is paying for free Wi-Fi access at 26 sites across London, with a view to rolling out a capital-wide service next year in conjunction with Spectrum Interactive. The access is truly free, and not restricted to Nokia handsets. Users do not need to sign up for an account, or identify themselves, but they will be required to …
SaiGon, and most towns and cities in VietNam and major cities in Cambodia are bursting with free InterNet WiFi. In fact the only paid WiFi outlets are in our two airports and 5-star hotels.
I can 'see' about 17 free WiFi channels from my suburban Ho Chi Minh City house, 14 with 4/5 bars.
It always hurts when I travel to the West as so many systems are for profit. WiFi is good for business as KFC and another fast food chain are filled with food-buying school children using the free WiFi before setting off for home.
Why couldn't have some British company taken the initiative?
On a recent trip to the states on holiday in Florida, I could barely move for tripping over free wifi. Shopping malls, hotels, Orlando international airport, restaurants, coffee shops. It was never hard to find free wifi. I'd say 95% of places I went it was free of charge! And it certainly helped avoid nasty roaming charges!
Meanwhile, back in rip off blighty anywhere we go just about with the exception of $tarbucks we're expected to pay for what is becoming to people, no more a standard service than providing toilets and water fountains!
No I'm not some freetard who doesn't want to pay for anything but to say how capatilist America is, they quickly cottoned on that people will stay places and use your services if you provide them to means to check faceache or check prices in shopping malls! And with unlimited data becoming a thing of the past, wifi is certainly a helpful option!
Forgive me if I gaze into this horses mouth for a moment.
How is the *actually* funded?
Because if it is reliant on tapping/interfering with public telecommunications, particularly so to insert 'targeted ads' (ala Phorm), that's illegal.
(Illegal interception, copyright theft, computer misuse etc).
Sorry, but the UK teclo industry hasn't exactly covered itself in glory when it comes to respect for the privacy/security/integrity of public telecommunications.
I'm not sure what their business model is, but the City has been ignored except for a lone node at Liverpool Street. Shopping ares seem to have been targetted with clusters around Oxford Street, and Kensington and Knightsbridge, rather than business areas.
Perhaps the nodes are going to serve adds for the nearby shops to bring Nokia some return.
London, bloody London again.
They could have done this in Norwich, or Newcastle, or Edinburgh, or Plymouth, or Sheffield.
But it's bloody London again.
In 2009 the average disposable income in London was £19,658. in Bournemouth it was £16,239 - with far fewer things to spend it on.
Use some imagination, you marketing people, instead of drooling after London all the time. Did Debenhams build their iconic millennium building in London? Oh no, it was Brumagen wasn't it!
Try my city for access points! Its population is about 150,000, yet...
http://www.panoulu.net/mappings/apmap.php
Plus, it's free. All I have to do is take my (famous) asus eee 701 onto the balcony, and I'm on! (Pisser having to sweep the snow off the keyboard every minute or so, but that's a minor inconvenience)
I live about a kilometre south of Toppila, so access is a doddle!
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