Connectivity is Key to Business and Our Community
I support continued improvement to our digital and communications infrastructure.
Wired & Wireless Connectivity in the Square Mile was not good enough but we achieved improvement.
The City wanted to encourage investment in affordable gigabit broadband infrastructure.
In 2017 BT Openreach completed the delivery of 35 superfast broadband cabinets as part of our campaign to improve connectivity, (offering speeds of up to 80 megabits per second) to 5,000 City premises.
Wireless connectivity
To improve mobile coverage and provide an enhanced free gigabit WiFi service for the Square Mile’s residents workers and visitors, the City awarded a public tender to deliver:
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A world leading gigabit WiFi network which will be free to use on an unlimited basis, across the Square Mile from the end of September 2017, which will be more advanced than the Link NYC gigabit WiFi network recently being built in New York City.
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A network of 400 4G small cells by 2019 (beginning in autumn 2017), using City street furniture to provide enhanced mobile coverage at street level, that will be the largest project of its kind anywhere in the UK, and will place the City in the best position to adopt 5G as soon as it’s available (2021).