Wi-Fi provider The Cloud is planning to launch city-wide Wi-Fi services this spring, installing wireless broadband in nine cities including London, Manchester and Birmingham. Hotspots will be installed in cafés, pubs, shops and railway stations as well as street furniture such as lamp posts. They will support online gaming and VoIP phone calls as well as normal Net usage such as surfing and email. 

The service will be available to BT Openzone, O2, SkypeZones and Nintendo WiFi subscribers in Birmingham, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham and Oxford plus the boroughs of camden, Islington and Kensington. The Could plans to extend its coverage later in the year and reach agreements with other ISPs to enable their customers to connect.

‘Providing ubiquitous wireless broadband access, over a network that is available to millions of Wi-Fi devices, and will be available to the new generation of Wi-Fi phones, gaming devices and other applications will have a major impact on the way people communicate, work and play in city centres,; said George Polk, The Cloud’s chief executive.