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SILVER LINING: City-wide web access.

Hotzones head for Manchester

Justin Webb
4/ 1/2006

MANCHESTER is one of nine UK cities to get blanket wireless coverage as part of a deal between Wi-Fi operator The Cloud and telecoms leader BT.

Discreet Wi-Fi boxes will be fitted in around 500 BT payphones across Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham, Oxford, Cambridge and Liverpool and Manchetester, creating a 'cloud' of coverage.

Users will be able to buy access to access to the web over their mobile phones, as long as they are underneath the cloud.

Many pubs, clubs and train stations are already in Wi-Fi hotspots - but this is the first time anyone has attempted to bring wireless broadband to an urban area on such a wide scale.

Both The Cloud and BT will share the revenue generated by these super-hotspots - also known as hotzones.

The Cloud's network will be available immediately to net users with BT Openzone, O2, SkypeZones and Nintendo Wi-Fi. All that is required is a net-accesible computer or mobile phone.

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The Cloud - which boasts around 6,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK, Sweden and Germany - also said today that it is looking to co-operate with local councils in a bid to bring even more Wi-Fi hotspots to the UK.

It is expected that up to 4 million people will be able to access the improved service. The hotzones will rival existing mobile phone networks.

The Cloud's chief exec, George Polk, said: "In 2004, we built the largest hotspot network in Europe, but this is the first time anyone has brought wireless internet access to the UK public on this scale.

"As the only large-scale neutral operator in the UK, we are the only partner with the technical and financial resources to build and operate a reliable network."

The recently launched network at Canary Wharf is, claims The Cloud, Europe's largest wi-fi enabled financial area.

Will you be joining The Cloud's Wi-Fi revolution? Have your say.

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Most recent 2 of 3 user comments

Hi!

I'm a resident in the city centre and a student at UMIST. I'm not sure if you are aware but there has already a FREE wireless network enabled in Deansgate, which i have experienced to be first rate and I encourage people to check it out.

Hollie, Whitworth Street, Manchester
8/02/2006 at 17:29

What's someone called 'Fixit' from Budapest doing commenting on this in a pro-network operator way? Sounds like a spoof to me, like...

Roy, Oldham
10/01/2006 at 10:30