O2 WiFi Delivers FREE Wireless Internet to 1200 UK McDonalds Restaurants

Mobile operator O2 UK (Telefonica) has today signed a new 5 year deal to deliver free wireless internet (wifi hotspot) services to McDonald’s 1,200 strong chain of fast food restaurants in the UK by summer 2012 (i.e. the London Olympic Games).

McDonald’s claims to have been one of the UK’s “biggest” providers of a free wifi since 2007. Indeed they previously used The Cloud’s network, which is now owned by BSkyB (Sky Broadband). By contrast the “new” service, which is free to both O2 and non-O2 customers alike, looks set to build on that.

O2 states that all of its hotspots will be “premium public hotspots, as opposed to using residential connections with limited bandwidth“. So no new coverage, just a change of operator.

Gavin Franks, MD of O2 Wifi, said:

“A year ago we set out our ambition to transform public wifi in the UK by offering a fast and reliable public wifi connection that is genuinely free for all, no matter which mobile or broadband provider they are with. This announcement builds on the significant partnerships already secured by O2 Wifi in the past 12 months, enabling millions of people the length and breadth of the UK to access the internet for free whilst on the move.”

Mark Fabes, IT Director of McDonald’s UK, added:

“Recent figures showed that a staggering 750,000 McDonald’s customers are logging on in our restaurants each month and we are always looking for ways to improve our customer experience. For the 3 million people we serve in our restaurants each day we believe that O2’s mobile expertise and enhanced quality of network connectivity will deliver a fast, safe and secure service for our customers to use when they visit us.”

Competition between UK WiFi Hotspot operators is clearly heating up. O2 claims, in 2012 alone, to have already announced an additional 3,000 UK hotspots.