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Free WiFi in London's Square Mile - no square meal for TheCloud yet!

Having installed "Europe's most advanced WiFi network across the City of London," hotspot aggregator TheCloud is now facing a chorus of sceptics. As Elliott Mueller, CEO of Manchester Metronet recently announced, there are dissenting voices joining with his challenge to cities around the world "to reconsider their strategies for urban wireless networks."

Already, observers are saying that the City Hotzone is a flop - almost certainly, too soon, but nonetheless, not pleasing to the ears of TheCloud's executives.

The big switch-on was announced in late April. A month on, says reporter Tom Young, Computing, and the City of London WiFi network "has only registered 6,000 users out of a possible 350,000, despite offering the service for free."

You'll search the "Media Coverage" bragging page
in vain for the clipping of this report. Last reports there are about the offer of free WiFi for people adopting Microsoft Vista - back in February.

Metronet's Mueller doesn't believe free WiFi is a bad idea, however; on the contrary, he believes that is the way forward. As he wrote in NewsWireless last week, Mueller called for WiFi services to be delivered free of charge. "Given the saturation of cable networks in urban areas," he said, "it was unlikely that mass adoption of paid for WiFi will ever happen."

"With a profitable and sustainable business model," continued Mueller, "an urban network operator such as Manchester Metronet is well positioned to provide WiFi free of charge."

According to Mueller, ad hoc WiFi users consume relatively trivial amounts of bandwidth, "which can be easily accommodated on a backbone infrastructure that services a vibrant B2B business model." That, he says, he has.

He highlighted the technical and commercial success of Manchester Metronet, "which has developed a secure broadband IP wireless network (covering the Greater Manchester area) supported by a powerful fibre-optic backbone network that accommodates the needs of Business to Business Customers."