WiFi-Enabling Payphones In The UK

The Cloud, which appears to be the UK's answer to Cometa, has announced an agreement with NWP Spectrum, operators of payphones and internet kiosks throughout the UK to add WiFi to all of their phones and kiosks. The Cloud claims this will bring their total hotspots up to 10,000 - though, as with any such announcement we'd rather not give too much credit to any hotspots before they're actually launched. It seems that every week we hear of another company getting set to launch 10,000 hotspots, but they never seem to get above a few hundred. In this case, it sounds like there's a good opportunity, though, to WiFi up all these payphones. What is still an open question, though, is whether or not the business model will work. The Cloud has a deal with BT Openzone to let their customers use its hotspots, but you have to wonder, as a middleman, if they can make enough money to make this worthwhile.
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Filed Under: wifi, wi-fi


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  • icon
    Derek Kerton (profile), 8 Sep 2003 @ 12:43pm

    Not A Fair Comparison

    Mike: Cruel comparison, Cloud : Cometa. As I understand it, the Cloud has over 10,000 hotspots right now. That puts Cometa to shame. They also did so with significantly less bravado.

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