Upper Street in Islington has now been dubbed Technology Mile after finding itself draped in lovely free Wi-Fi according to the electronics industry newspaper EE Times. The wireless mesh is up and running right now so if you're in the area and have any kind of Wi-Fi enabled device you can access the Interweb for free. On top of this the Council is also throwing a bunch of PCs to local businesses (pubs, cafes etc) in order to offer free Internet access to everyone who wanders into the hot zone whether they have a laptop tucked under their arm or not.
Sounds like a nice step in the right direction to us and it also gives a bit of a kicking to BT's Openzone - nothing like a little competition to help benefit the customers.
The network was constructed by wireless network builder Cityspace and wireless equipment vendor BelAir Networks. BT would have loved to have had a part in the scheme but they could only get an engineer around a week on Wednesday...
BelAir Networks' Vice-president of Marketing, Phil Belanger, said:
"This network is a perfect example of how local governments and service providers can work together to provide pervasive wireless broadband."
It's nice to know that people can now access Londonist on their lunch hours as well as during work hours when the boss isn't looking.
NOTE: The above image is an artist's impression of what an average Londoner will look like in the future when connecting to the Internet wirelessly while catching some rays on the Thames beach.
