Wi-Fi: The UK service provider landscape

You've heard about free, 'guerrilla Wi-Fi' providers of wireless networks - you may even have one in the street you live in. But what of the bona fide business service providers in the UK? Graeme Wearden has been looking at how far they've come and who you should use…

Wi-Fi has been spreading across the UK faster than chicken pox through a crèche ever since the government made commercial public wireless access networks legal, back in June 2002. By early May 2003 at least 240 sites had been launched. That number is expected to reach 4,000 by the end of the year, if every operator achieves its rollout targets.

So, welcome to the fast-moving world of Wi-Fi, and terms like hot spot and 802.11b. But those keen to unwire their life would do well to also remember an old maxim, caveat emptor.

Not that Wi-Fi operators are likely to stitch you up by failing to deliver the promise of high-speed wireless networking. But right now the UK's Wi-Fi market is so immature that features that one might rightly expect - such as roaming deals between UK networks and broadly similar pricing - just aren't place.

Take market leader BT Openzone. At the last count it had 111 hot spots open to the public and has already landed key deals with firms such as Hilton, Welcome Break and Costa Coffee as it tries to get a firm grip on the mobile worker market.

But unlimited access to the Openzone network costs £85 per month. That's a whopping 300 per cent more expensive than getting ADSL for your home and the equivalent of buying a new PC every year.

Is it worth it if it means you can work effectively while travelling or holed up in a hotel? That's your call but you're unlikely to be too chuffed if after lashing out £85 you find that the next corporate away day is inked in for the Moat House Hotel, Drury Lane, for example.

The Moat House chain, you see, has jumped into bed with Megabeam (recently taken over by Swisscom-Eurospot). With 15 hot spots operational in the UK, it has focused on transport hubs like railway stations and airports. Unlimited access costs £82 (E115) per month or £725 (E1,020) per year which also includes the use of another 27 Megabeam hot spots across Europe.

Several other companies are also hawking their wireless wares to anyone with a Wi-Fi card and a wallet.

STSN has 15 UK hot spots, mostly at Marriot hotels; Starbucks aims to offers Wi-Fi at 56 of its stores by the end of May in association with T-Mobile; Internet Exchange has 30 hot spots; and UK Explorer has 11 sites. The presence of these smaller operators underlines the dangers of rushing headlong into a monthly contract with any single provider. Openzone has the largest network by a fair distance but, you have to ask yourself, how many of its sites you will realistically visit.

Unless you're prepared to restrict yourself to certain hotels, coffee chains and airports you'll often find yourself forced to cough up extra dough in places where Wi-Fi is only available from Another Operator. Or else you could do without and sit there dreaming of all the nice things you could have bought with this month's £85.

No, until prices come down and a subscription to one operator means a sizable discount with another, your best bet is probably to make no long-term commitment and pay for your wireless access on the fly. Play fast and loose with the Wi-Fi market and splash a few quid whenever a handy hot spot arises, regardless of which network it belongs to.

The cheapest daily rate, incidentally, is Internet Exchange's offer of 24 hours access to a hot spot for £5. This compares to £15 for 24 hours access to Openzone, and £21 (E30) for 24 hour access to Megabeam. One hour deals are also commonly available.

The thorny issue of roaming will probably be solved quickly enough, either by mobile phone operators looking to hedge their bets with a stake in 3G's biggest rival, or by The Cloud, which has ambitious plans to build 3,000 hot spots by the end of this year. It doesn't plan to sell access directly to consumers, instead it intends to act as a wholesaler. Openzone is the first operator to sign up but others will follow.

And, if the very idea of paying for wireless access upsets you, there is another way. Your local sandwich bar may be about to become a trendy 'virtually free' hot spot. Broadscape is pioneering a business model where a customer who buys a sandwich or a coffee also gets 30 minutes free Wi-Fi access. Two Benugo sandwich bars – both located in London – offer the scheme so far, and if successful it could soon be offered by many more retail outlets. Bad news for the likes of Openzone, maybe, but good news for you.

Graeme Wearden writes for silicon.com sister site ZDNet UK. For that publication's map of UK Wi-Fi public hot spots see this page.