News

BT Hits 500,000 London Hotspot Target with New Thames Wi-fi Hotspots

MSPs
BT has met its goal to have 500,000 wi-fi hotspots across the capital for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, by launching new wi-fi hotspots along 44km (27 miles) of the River Thames. BT Wi-fi is also currently live on the Olympic Park.

The hotspots give Londoners, visitors, commercial and private river users’ access to more than one hundred places to connect including the Cutty Sark in Greenwich, The London Eye, Waterloo Pier and London Bridge Pier.

BT made a public commitment in September 2011 to have half a million Greater London hotspots in place for the Games. Hotspots can also be found at high street brands, hotel chains, thousands of independent businesses and homes, plus outdoor hotspots across Westminster and Waltham Forest. More wi-fi access is good news for commuters who have been urged to work flexibly or remotely to ease congestion and keep London moving during the Games.

"We’re giving Londoners and visitors as many places as possible to get online, keep in touch, work and share their experiences of the exciting events happening across London.” said Andy Baker, BT Wi-fi CEO.

BT is one of the largest of the world’s wi-fi providers*. BT Broadband customers have free and unlimited access to the internet away from the home at over 4 million wi-fi hotspots in the UK and Ireland, plus an extra 2 million international hotspots through BT’s partner Fon. Almost 200,000 places to log-on have been added in the last three months. Millions of BT home and business broadband customers, plus millions with a wi-fi enabled device or smartphone through other BT partnership agreements, can use the hotspots for free. More than one billion wi-fi minutes were used over the last three months on BT Wi-fi.

Today’s news adds to hotspots at coffee shops, train stations, airport lounges, shopping centres and city centres, plus thousands of independent business and homes. Free access is also available at more than 100 Heineken pubs and conference spaces in London.