Thames becomes giant wi-fi hotspot

The River Thames in London has been turned into a giant wi-fi hotspot that can be used by anyone with a wireless device on the river or along its banks.

The wireless broadband internet access stretches for 22km along the Thames from the Millennium Dome out in Greenwich up to Millbank by the Houses of Parliament, and will be extended further over the next two months.

The Thames Online service uses mesh networking technology across 100 access points, allowing users to roam along that stretch of the river without any interruption to their internet connection - effectively creating one big hotspot.

Wireless from A to Z

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A is for Antivirus
B is for Bluetooth
C is for The Cloud
D is for dotMobi
E is for Email
F is for FMC
G is for GPS
H is for HSDPA
I is for i-mode
J is for Japan Air
K is for Korea
L is for LBS
M is for M2M
N is for NFC
O is for Operating systems
P is for Pubs
Q is for QoS
R is for Roaming
S is for Satellite
T is for TV
U is for UMTS
V is for Virgin
W is for WiMax
X is for XDA
Y is for Yucca
Z is for Zigbee

The public network is available to anyone with a wireless-enabled device and costs £2.95 for one hour or £5.95 for a day of pay-as-you-go internet access. A monthly subscription rate of £9.95 is also available.

The network has a voice channel, and is also being used for the GPS-tracking of river traffic and wireless CCTV surveillance.

As well as passing trade from tourists and other roaming users Nigel Wesley, CEO of Global Reach Group, said the main source of revenue would be from subscriptions from business, local government and the emergency services.

He told silicon.com: "Making a living out of public wi-fi hotspots is almost impossible at the moment. We are layering on multiple services. We are not just competing with other hotspot providers."

The main technology behind Thames Online comes from two of Global Reach Group's subsidiary companies codeCreation and Meshopper Wi-Fi Networks. The network access points were supplied by Proxim.

Global Reach Group is also building a wi-fi mesh network in Manchester city centre.