After being the centre of the world's gaze for the past few months, London is starting to look beyond the glare of the Olympic flame and explore what's next. Part of this process will be to assess the city's approach to WiFi blankets. As I've blogged about previously, the run-up to the Olympics saw an aggressive rollout of various WiFi services that provided free Internet access on the Underground and across many of the city’s central neighbourhoods.
From the limited reports I've seen, these WiFi blankets proved to be tremendously popular. Even a quick poll of my peers or a review of my own mobile data usage, show they've been rapidly adopted. Quite frankly, I can no longer imagine a tube journey without ready access to the Internet. However, what's the long-term plan for mobile operators? Many people expected the WiFi blankets to be swiftly yanked away after the Olympics finished. But is this the case?
Taking a look at some of the major players, it would appear that there's a definite appetite to keep the WiFi blankets alive in one guise or another. Perhaps O2 is the most transparent here. O2 has created WiFi hotspots in some of London's most densely populated areas, e.g., Westminster, Chelsea and Kensington, and has seen a three-fold increase in data traffic. O2 has leased the rights to operate these networks for the next seven years and has publically stated that these networks are a part of its long-term evolution.
Other mobile providers also see the opportunity here. Virgin created 72 hotspots on the Underground and notched up over half a million users during the Olympics alone. Virgin plans to increase the number of hotspots to 120 by the end of the year. This means that almost one in two stations will have Internet connectivity.
However, Virgin is now changing its business model. Initially the service was free to all, now it's only free to Virgin customers. Other mobile users can still access the service but on a subscription basis. Virgin also plans to make further revenue by leasing the underground network to its competitors. Apparently discussions have already begun.
Many analysts expect WiFi blankets to gather pace in 2013 as mobile operators begin to realise the potential here, especially in regards to customer retention and expansion. And this is true for many cities, not just London.
As I've discussed previously, New York is one of the most aggressive in regards to developing WiFi blankets and momentum here is only growing stronger. Earlier in the summer, New York City’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) introduced a raft of new hotspots across Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. What's interesting here is how the services are being offered. The DoITT is turning some of New York's 12,360 public payphones into hotspots. If the trial is successful, all payphones could become Internet access points, creating a true citywide WiFi blanket.
This isn't the only New York WiFi scheme in development though. The City is also spending $200 million to provide WiFi access throughout its subway infrastructure. The plan is to offer complete coverage to all 277 underground stations by 2017. This is certainly an impressive target and with companies such as Google involved the project looks set to meet its deadline.
Take a look at any major city and I'm sure you'll find similar plans to offer ubiquitous WiFi connectivity. It's something we've been moving towards for many years and it's great to see the pace of developments gathering speed. At this point, it seems there's little to derail the process. However, it will be interesting to see how mobile carriers develop their business cases and what the implications will be for users.
Do you live in London or in a city with free WiFi access? Do you use it? Does it provide a reliable service? What's the future for citywide WiFi blankets? Let me know what you think.