Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, has recently stated that he wants England’s capital city to become a WiFi city where people can log on at anytime and in any place within the city.

Speaking in a recent interview the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, stated that he wants to turn the capital city into a WiFi city, enabling residents and visitors to log on and get on the Internet wherever and whenever they want. This comes shortly after Gordon Brown announced that he aims to put aside funds to give poorer families in the UK the money to get online with a free computer and broadband access.

Johnson wants the initiative to start in Stratford, which is the site of the 2012 Olympic Games. He said: “Let’s do it, beginning in Stratford in this fantastic area of opportunity.” However, he described the Prime Minister’s £300 million initiative to provide poorer families with free broadband and computer as being “a bit like a desperate bribe”.

Johnson said: “I certainly think there is a case for dealing with people who are information technology-poor, and trying to help people get online, [but] what we need is a city where anywhere you go, you can log on, you can get on the web. They’ve done it in other parts of the world; why on earth can’t we do it?” He added: “I think that’s the way we should be going, rather than bunging money to people, which sounds a bit like a desperate bribe by the prime minister. Let’s look at ways that we can improve the infrastructure in this city so that there’s wi-fi access everywhere.”

A number of initiatives have already been put into place in London in order to increase WiFi access, and this includes a network deployed by BT Openzone, and a network launched across the city in April of 2007 by The Cloud. Although Mr Johnson made it clear that he was keen for increased WiFi access to be made available in the city he did not indicate whether this access should be provided for free.