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London bus passengers will soon be able to connect to onboard Wi-Fi as part of Mayor Boris Johnson’s drive to improve connectivity.
Broadband provider Virgin Media is in "advanced negotiations" with the London authorities to offer free Wi-Fi access with Virgin chief Neil Berkett saying the deployment would commence "in the not too distant future."
According to a Telegraph report, Virgin plans to offer free WiFi in London although busses are not specifically mentioned.
Virgin’s London WiFi network will offer speeds of up to half a megabit to everyone but subscribers to Virgin services would see their speeds reach up to 10 megabits.
London major office ‘Digital London’ boss Kulveer Ranger told Wired that WiFi would arrive soon on the capital’s bus network.
Specifically citing BT as a target for the initiative, Virgin’s move into WiFi is likely to be seen as a competitive move against BT’s own Openzone and BTfone.
Virgin previously announced plans to install WiFi base stations in infrastructure locations such as street cabinets.
WiFi is rapidly looking to be the next competitive battlefield between UK’s largest ISPs.
