Nokia gives central London test of free wifi
Nov 3rd, 2011, 01:32 AM
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Nov 3rd, 2011, 01:55 AM
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Hmm...
They're launching a two month trial of hotspots within the Circle Line. That's not a free resource: someone's going to have to pay for a system with enough bandwidth to cope if it ever goes permanent. And that someone's not going to be the taxpayer.
Personally, I think it'll get swamped (who's going to pay top rates to phone companies when they can get the same access free?), Nokia will realise they'll go bust if they try to pay for a service that actually works. So they'll roll out a service most people won't be able to use most of the time. Or they'll dump the test with the usual self-serving hypocritical gibberish about skinflint governments refusing to subsidise foreign businesses that the IT industry spends its life churning out. And no-one else will step into their place.
Alternatively, if you're a real cynic, this is simply a promotional stunt to publicise a new phone, and Nokia know perfectly well they're going to pull the plug at the twelfth stroke of Big Ben on Dec 31.
They're launching a two month trial of hotspots within the Circle Line. That's not a free resource: someone's going to have to pay for a system with enough bandwidth to cope if it ever goes permanent. And that someone's not going to be the taxpayer.
Personally, I think it'll get swamped (who's going to pay top rates to phone companies when they can get the same access free?), Nokia will realise they'll go bust if they try to pay for a service that actually works. So they'll roll out a service most people won't be able to use most of the time. Or they'll dump the test with the usual self-serving hypocritical gibberish about skinflint governments refusing to subsidise foreign businesses that the IT industry spends its life churning out. And no-one else will step into their place.
Alternatively, if you're a real cynic, this is simply a promotional stunt to publicise a new phone, and Nokia know perfectly well they're going to pull the plug at the twelfth stroke of Big Ben on Dec 31.
Nov 3rd, 2011, 02:27 AM
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Or it'll be fifteen free minutes, after which you have to sign up to a subscription service, which is another model I've seen used.
There are a fair few free wifi hotspots in central London as it is. One of my favourite cafes has just closed, sadly, but there's always the British Library.
There are a fair few free wifi hotspots in central London as it is. One of my favourite cafes has just closed, sadly, but there's always the British Library.
Nov 3rd, 2011, 02:40 AM
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They have free wifi on the new Stansted Express trains. And it actually works! You do need to provide an email address up front though (perhaps they flog your details to cover costs!). But it is truly free/accesible in the sense that you don't have to get a password from anyone.
Nov 3rd, 2011, 03:50 AM
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"They have free wifi on the new Stansted Express trains"
And on the buses between London and Oxford. And...
But there's an infinite (literally) difference between the cost of a service limited to a hundred or so people on a bus or train for an hour or so (or, in the BL, the couple of hundred who can find seats) and handing out, for free, every second of the year, to a daytime average of several million people within the Circle Line alone, a service it costs the phone companies billions to erect and maintain.
And on the buses between London and Oxford. And...
But there's an infinite (literally) difference between the cost of a service limited to a hundred or so people on a bus or train for an hour or so (or, in the BL, the couple of hundred who can find seats) and handing out, for free, every second of the year, to a daytime average of several million people within the Circle Line alone, a service it costs the phone companies billions to erect and maintain.
