BT names first six Wireless Cities

Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool among first to get city-wide networks

BT has named the first six cities that will benefit from its Wireless Cities project which links up whole cities through the air.

The six are Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, and the City of Westminster in London. The wireless networks will give residents and visitors access to information on local amenities, parking, public services, health, traffic and safety.

In Cardiff and Westminster, part of the wireless network is already in place, as BT Openzone wireless hotspots have already been installed across both cities.

In both cases, the scheme will see the initial work being extended, and in the other four the project will start from scratch.

Another six cities will be named later on, once work has begun on the first six, and the telecoms giant says it is in negotiations with further urban centres.

For each of the cities, BT will be working with the local authority to find out how best the network could benefit residents, visitors and businesses. "How it looks and what it does is a question of choice for the cities," a BT spokesman said.

Once the Wireless City is open, anyone with a Wi-Fi connection will be able to access the network by connecting to a hotspot. The networks are expected to be in place in each of the first six cities by the end of 2006, according to BT.