bassethound
09-01-12, 15:26
In what is being billed as the “largest free wi-fi zone” in Europe, mobile network operator O2 is to provide the service in two London boroughs.
A statement from O2 said the deal, which would come at no cost to the taxpayer, was particularly important given the number of people expected to visit London during the summer for the Olympic Games.
The news follows on from the announcement that London’s transport authority is to install wi-fi hotspots in some 120 underground stations ahead of the Olympics, following a successful trial.
The two boroughs, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster, contain a large number of the capital’s most prominent tourist attractions including Westminster Abbey—where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were married—,the Houses of Parliament and many of London’s museums. The two boroughs are also among London’s most affluent.
It will initially be rolled out in a limited number of areas and then throughout the boroughs over the longer term, the company said. O2 stressed that there was no cost to the tax payer and that all costs were being recouped through advertising on the home page.
A spokeswoman for O2, which is part of Telefónica, said the service would operate at between 1MB/s and up to 5 MB/s. She also said that, contrary to the experience of almost anyone who has attended a conference anywhere and had the misery of conference wi-fi, that the service would be able to cope with the traffic demands.
Easy for criminals to pluck data out of the air
“We will make the network dense enough to cope with coverage and capacity. We are building a flexible architecture that can be quickly and easily upgraded and updated.”
There were no details provided of the security implemented by O2, but according to Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant for Sophos, connecting to public wi-fi is not a risk-free operation.
There are a number of readily available tools that allow scammers to intercept unencrypted traffic that passes over public wi-fi.
“There is also a risk that scammers can create their own rogue hotspots which could claim to be the real thing. All your data would then pass through their service.”
Mr. Cluley said consumers should only use sites that had secure communications (HTTPS) such as Facebook, Google+ or Twitter, or subscribe to commercial services that provide encrypted browsing.
The O2 spokeswoman said: “We have worked hard to ensure that our wi-fi offering is secure for all customers and will continue to invest in further upgrades to make sure that this remains the case.
“We strongly encourage people to be careful when using unrecognized wi-fi networks with unfamiliar SSIDs (names of the networks found by the computer).”
A statement from O2 said the deal, which would come at no cost to the taxpayer, was particularly important given the number of people expected to visit London during the summer for the Olympic Games.
The news follows on from the announcement that London’s transport authority is to install wi-fi hotspots in some 120 underground stations ahead of the Olympics, following a successful trial.
The two boroughs, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster, contain a large number of the capital’s most prominent tourist attractions including Westminster Abbey—where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were married—,the Houses of Parliament and many of London’s museums. The two boroughs are also among London’s most affluent.
It will initially be rolled out in a limited number of areas and then throughout the boroughs over the longer term, the company said. O2 stressed that there was no cost to the tax payer and that all costs were being recouped through advertising on the home page.
A spokeswoman for O2, which is part of Telefónica, said the service would operate at between 1MB/s and up to 5 MB/s. She also said that, contrary to the experience of almost anyone who has attended a conference anywhere and had the misery of conference wi-fi, that the service would be able to cope with the traffic demands.
Easy for criminals to pluck data out of the air
“We will make the network dense enough to cope with coverage and capacity. We are building a flexible architecture that can be quickly and easily upgraded and updated.”
There were no details provided of the security implemented by O2, but according to Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant for Sophos, connecting to public wi-fi is not a risk-free operation.
There are a number of readily available tools that allow scammers to intercept unencrypted traffic that passes over public wi-fi.
“There is also a risk that scammers can create their own rogue hotspots which could claim to be the real thing. All your data would then pass through their service.”
Mr. Cluley said consumers should only use sites that had secure communications (HTTPS) such as Facebook, Google+ or Twitter, or subscribe to commercial services that provide encrypted browsing.
The O2 spokeswoman said: “We have worked hard to ensure that our wi-fi offering is secure for all customers and will continue to invest in further upgrades to make sure that this remains the case.
“We strongly encourage people to be careful when using unrecognized wi-fi networks with unfamiliar SSIDs (names of the networks found by the computer).”