University College London Launches FREE Public WiFi

The University College London (UCL) has today teamed up with The Cloud (BSkyB) to launch a free public WiFi wireless Internet service at several of its campus sites across the capital city. But there is a caveat concerning how “free” it is.

According to the announcement, UCL’s WiFi service will span 21 halls of residence plus the Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL Art Museum, Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the Bloomsbury Theatre Café.

Mike Turpin, UCL’s Head of Network Services, said:

“Our permanent students and staff have WiFi access but it wasn’t available to temporary visitors or the general public. We knew we needed to put such a service in place. Whether that’s summer school students needing access to educational resources or visitors to our museums wanting to access a venue map – all require an internet connection and we know The Cloud has the expertise to provide a reliable service that will boost the visitor experience at UCL.”

The service itself will be free and unlimited for the duration of the summer, but after this it will become free for only 15 minutes a day for students in the halls of residence (rising to 180 minutes a day for users at museums and theatre locations). After that you’ll have to pay for additional time.

Incidentally The Cloud also serves 10 other UK universities with a similar service (e.g. the University of Aberdeen and the University of Bath).