BT has revealed plans to set up a high-speed wireless broadband network across Westminster, London.The company has reached a deal with Westminster City Council, making the area the first of an initial 12 areas earmarked by BT for the rollout of such services.The area covered includes the West End and the area around the Houses of Parliament.The City Council has signed an agreement with Vertex Data Science, which will work with BT to develop applications running over the wireless broadband network. In addition to the council’s service, BT will expand the network to offer extensive wireless broadband coverage in most areas of the city in the next couple of years. BT has said it will introduce the first 12 Wireless Cities by the end of March 2007. Westminster is furthest advanced with its plans and rollout of the street-based network, following a successful pilot. The parts of the network that do not support council services will be funded by BT.Steve Andrews, BT Group chief of mobility and convergence, said: “Westminster has been at the forefront of this project, and the City Council has enthusiastically grasped the benefits of a wireless city for the council, businesses community and residents. Flexible working will help them and their large mobile workforce to get the most out of the wireless network. “The project is part of our strategy to ensure customers are always best connected, wherever they are and using whatever device they want. When we launch Wi-Fi phones for BT Fusion shortly, there will be whole areas of many cities where customers will be able to make calls and access their personal or business applications whilst on the move.”There’s a Big Brother element to the plan, according to councilor Colin Barrow, of the Westminster City Council: “This will allow us to deliver our goals for community safety by supporting a more flexible and adaptable CCTV network.”-Jonny Evans, Macworld.co.ukRelated Links: BT Touts All-IP Network Benefits to Businesses BT Connects First Customers to All-IP NetworkCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content BrandPost Stay in Control of Your Data with a Secure and Compliant Sovereign Cloud By Stan Kwong Mar 23, 2023 6 mins Cloud Security Cloud Computing News Accenture to lay off 19,000 to cut costs amid economic uncertainty Technology services giant Accenture will continue to hire but meanwhile is cutting staff to streamline operations in the face of economic headwinds. By Anirban Ghoshal Mar 23, 2023 2 mins IT Consulting Services Technology Industry BrandPost Advice from procurement: How to evaluate and propose new IT investments By clearly defining needs and requirements, evaluating TCO, and performing risk assessments, procurement and IT teams can work together to help their business leaders make more informed decisions for an improved bottom line. By Bo Bradshaw, Edgio Procurement Director Mar 23, 2023 5 mins SaaS BrandPost Why AI is key to hiring and retaining developers Data shows that the opportunity to build AI-powered apps figures very prominently in where developers decide to work. By Bryan Kirschner, Vice President, Strategy at DataStax Mar 23, 2023 4 mins Artificial Intelligence IT Leadership Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe