Free WiFi Wireless Internet Comes to all Greene King UK Pubs and Hotels

The Cloud (BSkyB), a public wifi hotspot operator, has announced that the visitors and guests of 2,400 UK pubs, restaurants, hotels and venues owned by the Greene King group will soon be able to access a free wireless internet service (with no time constraints).

The new deal actually marks an extension to Greene King’s prior agreement with The Cloud, which has so far only deployed its wifi service at 300 pubs. Apparently demand has been so high for the service that the group decided to expand its coverage (more than 5 Million Megabytes of data have been downloaded via the network in April alone).

Peter Groves, Group Commercial Director from Greene King, said:

“We’ve seen more and more people use WiFi in our pubs in the last 12 months and it is was clear to us that we needed to introduce it to all of our pubs, restaurants and hotels. It helps us attract a wider audience across the day, including at traditionally quieter times, as well as providing the infrastructure we can use for new services that improve customer satisfaction and loyalty over the longer term. We have been delighted with the service that The Cloud have provided, so they seemed the natural partner to roll out across our estate.”

Vince Russell, Managing Director of The Cloud, said:

“We are delighted to extend our relationship with Greene King reinforcing our position as the provider of choice for fast, reliable WiFi access in the nation’s favourite pubs. As tablet and smartphone penetration continues to climb so customers increasingly demand great connectivity whether to keep in touch with emails, sharing the excitement of great sporting moments via social media or even keeping the kids entertained. We look forward to working with Greene King and our other partners as we continue to deliver new innovative services for them and more importantly their customers.”

The Cloud, which now believes itself to be “by far the biggest provider of WiFi to Britain’s pubs” (the Greene King deal adds to the 5,000 pubs already on their network) and has over 10,000 hotspots around the UK, claims that 57% of WiFi users in Greene King venues are on iPhones and 22% are on other Smartphones. The expanded services should be ready for use from this summer 2012.