Great news for all of the Brittish living in London, a company called MeshHopper joined forces with Free-Hotspot to bring a free Wireless Network across the river Thames.
The network, which will be called Online-4-free requires people to look at a 15 to 30 second advertisement every 30 minutes to gain access to the network with a modest 256Kbps. If you prefer not seeing the advertisement, you will have access to a 500kbps connection for the modest fee of: “$6 (2.95 pounds) per hour or $20 (9.95 pounds) a month”.
I couldn’t be happier about this, since I’m hoping to move there soon, but hopefully these sorts of initiatives should become more common in other areas and countries as the years go by.
Couldn’t they just require a modified browser like firefox or IE to use the service, then stick a custom google search as the homepage and get money that way.
Adverts every 30 mins could get a little annoying.
I am certain that there will be dozens of ways to “ignore” the advertisements if you really want to, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it.