Going to town

The

seems to be entering a golden age of mobile communications technology. The proliferation of more sophisticated mobile phones, laptops and mobile gaming consoles, and the networking technologies to support them, mean that there are ever more ways to connect wirelessly to the internet.

Now a major initiative led by Wi-Fi network operator The Cloud means that nine UK cities are about to experience a boom in wireless networking.

However, while wireless technology advances apace in the UK, on a global scale wrangles in the background over standards, along with jostling for market position by major manufacturers, threaten to stymie progress towards a wire-free future. Indeed, the international wireless community will anxiously study the uptake of Wi-Fi here for clues as to how the complex interface between technology, business and consumer habits plays out.

There will be plenty of data to examine. The city-sized hotspots planned by The Cloud will be the largest ever unveiled in the UK, and it is claimed that the initiative is the first major campaign to bring coverage to an entire city since the existing mobile phone networks were developed in the early 1990s.