Ryan MacMillan

Those well-known web2.0 mavens and digital leets over at The City of London Corporation today switched on their wireless mesh, promising wireless access anywhere within the Square Mile. Obviously, it’s not free, though, don’t be silly. What would the point of that be, eh?

What is it with the UK and charging for wifi in public places? This is just a sense I get having lived in the USA for the past two years, but they’re way ahead when it comes to treating wifi like tap water: not just freely available, but viewed as a basic coponent of any public space, like a roof or chairs. I still remember the aghast look of horror on an American University colleague’s face when I explained to her that, yes, Dorothy, the British Library does charge for wireless access. It’s the same story in coffeeshops and pubs up and down the country. Sure, there are some places that provide free wifi, but more often than not in the UK, one winds up paying a fiver and fiddling about entering debit card numbers into a laptop whilst sitting on a badly designed sofa which a corporate interior design team thought looked a bit like that one on Friends. Living in Madison, WI, I got used to not even worrying about where there’d be a wireless connection if I didn’t want to work at my office: every coffeeshop downtown had wireless. They just… did - a coffeeshop opening without free wireless would have been like a pub opening without beer.

Maybe there simply isn’t the demand for it in the UK? Or is it still too expensive?