Lib Dems promise free London Wi-Fi

Posted on 25 Apr 2008 at 14:35

The Liberal Democrat candidate to be mayor of London wants free Wi-Fi in all the capital's public spaces.

Brian Paddick says that he would work with the London boroughs to provide coverage, but only at a speed of 256Kb/sec that would not compete with commercial providers.

"London is a 21st-century city and as mayor I would want to see 21st-century technology accessible to all," Paddick said. "If elected, I pledge to work with the private sector and local boroughs to make London the first Wi-Fied [sic] capital in the world. Access to the internet is access to knowledge, jobs and education and I will do all I can as mayor to close the gap between the digital haves and digital have-nots."

The service would be limited to connections of one hour, after which the user could initiate a new connection. The idea is to prevent downloading of large amounts of data, which the slow connection speed would pretty much prevent anyway.

Paddick says that the scheme would cost £7.5 million to set up and run for five years. That money would come from the scrapping of Transport for London's advertising and communications budgets.

Author: Simon Aughton

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