News

Two weeks free WiFi at major London stations, as Broadreach hits a million sessions

Free Wi-Fi will be available from today at; Cannon St, Charing Cross, Euston, Fenchurch St, Kings Cross, St Pancras, Liverpool St, London Bridge, Marylebone, Paddington, Victoria and Waterloo stations, till 7th November, to celebrate a hundred thousand registered users, and a million sessions.

The news means that users of the Broadreach hotspot network average ten sessions each, which shows there's room for expansion, at least.

User numbers, says the company, doubled in the last twelve months, and the rate is going up: registered users increase by 500% in last 4 months, according to today's announcement.

"The one millionth user session occurred today at Waterloo Station, with a 400% increase in usage in the last 6 months for station WiFi hotspots alone," the release continued.

And if you like trivial statistics, "In the last four months, the average usage per session has also has also increased by 15% from 27 mins per session to 31 mins per session."

It is at the stations where the most rapid developments in hotspot usage are occurring and now becoming (says Broadreach) a regular feature for London WiFi commuters – the last few months have seen the emergence of a growing group of people who surf in the morning and again in the evening, which is showing through in that increase in average revenue per customer.

Are they pleased? Of course they're pleased: "We are delighted to have reached two such fantastic milestones for the ReadytoSurf service", Magnus McEwen-King, Broadreach CEO and founder commented. "We've listened hard to what our customers want, and we believe that we have the easiest-to-use public internet access system in the industry. At a time when other companies in our industry are focusing on a hotspot landgrab, we've focused on installing hotspots in high-footfall, branded locations that can deliver users – and revenue – for Broadreach, and combined with the steep increase of WiFi users in stations, this milestone is evidence of that strategy's success."

Told you he was pleased. He had lots more of the same sort of thing to say, too. The bit that matters, of course, is that you can have free WiFi at those stations, as well as at the other 4,000 locations throughout the UK at places like Little Chef, Network Rail, Virgin Trains, Travelodge, EAT, Sainsburys, Greene King, Queens Moat House Hotels, Holmes Place and Virgin Megastores.