O2 plans free and open WiFi network across the UK, Sky picks up The Cloud

Only a handful of Muni-Fi projects ended in anything greater than eternal tears here in the States, but hopefully O2′s up for the challenge across the pond. The UK carrier just announced its intentions to “refine the WiFi landscape” in its home nation by launching O2 WiFi, with a raft of “premium hotspots” to be rolled out and managed by key venue owners. As of now, it’s hard to pinpoint who exactly will begin hosting O2′s routers, but the key part is this: they’ll be open for all customers to access for free, no matter which mobile or broadband provider they are with. Making no bones about who it’s coming after, the operator has affirmed its intentions to “at least double the number of premium hotspots currently offered by BT Openzone and The Cloud combined by 2013,” with the rollout to begin as early as today and continue for as long as it takes. ‘Course, doubling up The Cloud may take a little more work given that Sky just picked it up for an undisclosed sum, but hey, we’re sure every Briton in existence would just love to see these two duke it out for WiFi supremacy. Continue reading O2 plans free and open WiFi network across the UK, Sky picks up The Cloud O2 plans free and open WiFi network across the UK, Sky picks up The Cloud originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Posted by on January 27, 2011. Filed under News, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry