Jan/Feb 2006

The prospect of a fully Wi-Fi-enabled world may be about to come a step closer. By March, The Cloud (an established Wi-Fi hotspot developer) plans to be able to offer Wi-Fi Internet access right across the centres of nine major UK cities. The list of locations includes parts of London's City and West End areas.

In theory, this should mean that instead of having to seek out a specific Wi-Fi hotspot (a hotel or café, for instance), you could just park your van or truck on the street and log on anywhere.

It's not quite as simple as that. The Cloud is primarily a wholesaler, and will be directing the new service mainly at existing clients such as BT OpenZone, O2 and SkypeZones, who have reportedly already said they will offer access to existing customers.

However, there is also a pay-as-you-go version, in which non-contract customers can access The Cloud's web "landing page" free of charge, and then pay online for an ad hoc period of use. A similar arrangement is already used by train operator GNER to allow passengers on its mainline trains to log on and then pay online by credit card (in this case per half hour).

It seems The Cloud has established multiple interconnected hotspots (it talks about "hundreds") it city centre areas, which can operate seamlessly as far as users are concerned.

The city centres initially covered by the service are in Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Oxford, Cambridge and Liverpool. In London, it will be available initially in Kensington and Chelsea, Camden and Islington.

Currently there are obvious omissions such as Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle, Norwich and others, but the company says it is hoping to extend the service later in the year.

The Cloud has succeeded in getting endorsement from Derek Wyatt MP, head of the all party Internet group, who says: "This initiative is going to open up broadband speed internet access to a vast and varied number of people. The fact that The Cloud network allows people to choose their own service provider means as many as possible will be allowed access to the Wi-Fi."

The company hopes to maintain this kind of support by asserting its neutral stance, and says it aims to extend access by working with organisations such as local authorities.

Last year The Cloud launched a similar network in London's Canary Wharf, which it says is now Europe's largest Wi-Fi-enabled financial area. It has also Wi-Fi-enabled Old Trafford, Royal Festival Hall and the British Library.

• There are now more than 100,000 free or commercial Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide, according to JiWire, a US-based specialist in Wi-Fi wireless networks and technologies. Dublin-based free-hotspot.com lays claim to 7,500 of these, and says it increased its UK network by 40 per cent last year. It offers advertising-sponsored hotspot capability to commercial hosts in various countries including the UK and France.