ADD2683 Open Wi-Fi in London

1.1.    Internet access is essential to help visitors in London plan their day and navigate the city. Less than half of visitors to London strongly agree with the statement that they could access good Wi-Fi during their trip. Roaming costs for non-UK visitors are expensive. Alternatives such as buying a new sim card or e-sim card, or mobile Wi-Fi, can be confusing and unreliable. Free visitor Wi-Fi will help improve London’s reputation in visitor welcome and value for money.
1.2.    Without internet access, visitors are less able to navigate and explore more of the city, and find things to do. Customer review data shows London scores lower than our global competitors for internet access, which significantly lowers visitor satisfaction when in the city. 
1.3.    The GLA is working with London & Partners on the open Wi-Fi project to help us better understand how we might help non-UK visitors to London access the internet more easily. This is a key deliverable in London’s Visitor Experience Strategy, led by London & Partners. 
1.4.    The project also supports the Digital Access for All mission, by creating free internet access within the areas where the open Wi-Fi network can be deployed. 
1.5.    Through a discovery brief, we would like to better understand potential delivery models and, if they are fit for purpose, technical requirements, potential coverage, costs, timings, scale and an outline delivery plan. 
1.6.    This will require consulting with key stakeholders such as the Wireless Broadband Alliance; Wi-Fi and mobile network operators; boroughs overseeing key destinations across the capital;  international cities with experience of delivering OpenRoaming (such as Tokyo); and other relevant stakeholders. 
1.7.    Westminster Council has been trialling OpenRoaming, a wireless roaming technology from the Wireless Broadband Alliance. This allows users to seamlessly connect to Wi-Fi networks that have adopted the technology, without the need for passwords or additional credentials. 
1.8.    Canary Wharf and the London Stadium have already implemented OpenRoaming. The technology is operating internationally, including in Tokyo. 
1.9.    This technology appears to provide a relatively simple and cost-efficient way to harness existing Wi-Fi networks in London to create a single city-wide network.
1.10.    London & Partners has the support of the wider tourism industry for this initiative. It can leverage its extensive network to encourage implementation – targeting large network owners in areas with high visitor footfall.
1.11.    The value of the contract has been determined based on experience from similar projects where consultant day rates of between £290 and £882 have been quoted. The project will require six weeks of consultant support, so we have applied a medium value of £571 to determine a £20,000 contract. 
1.12.    The GLA will run a competitive mini-tender. It has identified more than three consultants who have relevant experience delivering discovery briefs relating to digital infrastructure.
 

2.1.    The key objectives as part of the discovery brief are as follows:
•    to gain a full overview of OpenRoaming and any alternative models, e.g. Passpoint
•    to better understand the minimum requirements for participating networks in relation to key issues, such as network speed, security and technical considerations
•    to better understand which legal/compliance regulations need to be considered
•    to better understand the barriers preventing visitors from connecting to the network, e.g. phone type or age
•    to ascertain the scale required to ensure the network covers enough of London’s visitor hotspots
•    to ascertain the timings of a realistic roll-out plan to achieve this scale
•    to determine how we get stakeholders to buy in to the concept (e.g. early consultation and workshops)
•    to better understand the costs and technical requirements
•    to determine whether incentives are required (and if so, what these might look like)
•    to identify the benefits /considerations to network owners who join the federated network
•    to identify the options to fund the network
•    to identify the available options for the collection of a user’s data, and how might this be implemented (e.g. user data and aggregated behavioural data)
•    to identify who could access the data and for what purposes (e.g., would participating networks get access to data?).
2.2.    The key outcomes for the project are as follows:
•    explore if London can create an official London Wi-Fi network, which users log in to once and can then access throughout the city 
•    provide free internet access to visitors in key visitor destinations across the city
•    a secondary benefit to be explored in a future phase is whether the service could support residential and or commercial premises without internet access.
 

3.1.    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as public authorities, the Mayor and the GLA are subject to a public-sector equality duty and must have ‘due regard’ to the need to:
•    eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation 
•    advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not
•    foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not.
Protected characteristics under section 149 of the Equality Act are age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage or civil partnership status.
3.2.    The open Wi-Fi project will contribute to the growth of London’s economy; and will directly or indirectly help create economic development opportunities and digital experience for a wide variety of Londoners and visitors to the city through improved digital access, and improved affordability of connectivity.
3.3.    Officers have considered the likely impact of this proposed decision on groups with protected characteristics. They have concluded that there are no adverse impacts; and that impacts are likely to be positive.

4.1.    The solution being considered uses existing Wi-Fi infrastructure that may not be reliable or quick enough to provide visitors with a satisfactory internet connection. This will be assessed as part of the consultation. 
4.2.    The provision of free Wi-Fi across the city may impact existing Wi-Fi provision partnerships in the city.
4.3.    Sufficient scale is required to roll out a ‘city-wide’ network. The scoping exercise will assess the criteria for a minimum viable product. 
4.4.    There is a risk of overly focusing on which technology to adopt, rather than on other delivery considerations (such as partnerships required and a delivery plan). These factors will be considered as part of the scoping. 
Link to Mayoral strategies and priorities
4.5.    The Digital Access for All mission is for “every Londoner to have access to good connectivity, basic digital skills and the device or support they need to be online by 2025”. 
4.6.    The project delivers part of the work envisioned by the Mayor’s Smarter London Together Roadmap, published in 2018, under mission 3, ‘world-class digital connectivity and smarter streets’.
 

5.1.    Approval is requested for expenditure of up to £20,000 to commission an expert consultant to undertake a discovery brief to better understand how the GLA, and London & Partners, might: help non-UK visitors to London access the internet more easily through a city-wide Wi-Fi network; and help establish the open Wi-Fi in London project.
5.2.    Of this expenditure, £6,000 will be funded from within the Connectivity budget. The remaining £14,000 will be funded from the wider Connectivity, Air Quality, Transport and Infrastructure approved budget for 2023-24.
5.3.    All expenditure will be incurred within the 2023-24 financial year; and all relevant budget adjustments will be made. 
 

6.1.    The project will be delivered according to the following timetable: