Sponsor Brings Free WiFi to London

What better way is there to promote its biggest marketing push ever than to enable product usage in one of the world's biggest cities? Nokia, in partnership with Spectrum Interactive, today announced that they will roll out 26 free Wi-Fi hotspots across Central London. If the pilot run is successful then the program will be expanded.

"We see Wi-Fi evolving into a free service in areas such as restaurants and it is because people are coming in for a relatively short period of time. In these cases, Wi-Fi is provided as a free service and it is being funded by a partner, sponsor or an advertising business model," said Simon Alberga, executive chairman of Spectrum Interactive, at the kick-off event earlier today.

Users must simply search for the 'Free Nokia Wi-Fi' SSID and accept the terms and conditions to get started. If the trial is successful, Nokia and Spectrum Interactive are planning for a full rollout across London in 2012, which will bring free WiFi to more than 1,000 locations throughout London.