Posted: 06th Jan, 2012 By: MarkJ


Mobile operator O2 UK has today signed a new "
landmark" deal that will provide visitors to and residents of
Westminster,
Kensington and
Chelsea (central London) with access to the largest free Wi-Fi (wireless broadband) internet access zone in Europe.
The deal between O2,
Westminster City Council and the
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which is to see the operators metro wireless networking kit being
installed on street furniture, will apparently not cost the councils or the taxpayer any money.
Derek McManus, Chief Operating Officer for O2, said:
"This ground-breaking deal - the first of its kind in the UK - will see us deliver high quality connectivity across London in time for London 2012. Our longer-term aim is to expand our footprint of O2 Wifi, which is open to everyone, and also intelligently enhance our services at street level, where people need the network the most.
Our £500m annual network investment programme is focussed on integrating new layers of technology into the existing network to enable a seamless and sustained customer experience. We are driven entirely by our customers’ needs and believe that services should be delivered in the best possible way, across multiple networks and supported by different technologies."
O2 announced that they planned to build their own FREE Wi-Fi Hotspot (
O2 Wifi) service one year ago (
here). The move followed BSkyB's ( Sky Broadband ) acquisition of The Cloud , which O2 had initially been using for a similar service.
The new platform will start
rolling out in central London this month, albeit only to a "
limited number of areas". A wider deployment throughout the boroughs will occur "
over the longer term". It's hoped that the move will help access during the forthcoming
2012 Olympic Games, although there's hardly a shortage of Wi-Fi Hotspots in London.