London retains Wi-Fi crown

London has 12,276 active wireless access points

London has once again won the title of most wireless city. The annual Wireless Security Survey from security specialist RSA has revealed that while growth is slowing, London still has more access points than Paris and New York.

The survey estimates that London has 12,276 active wireless access points. That number bested New York by more than 3,000.

Though it was third in the number of access points, Paris was found to be the fastest growing among the three cities. Paris saw its total number of access points grow by some 543 per cent over the past year, compared with London's growth rate of 72 per cent and New York's of 45 per cent.

While London leads in the number of access points, the city has the smallest percentage of publicly available Wi-Fi points.

RSA estimates that just five per cent of London's access points are public hotspots. In Paris, six per cent of access points are hotspots, while New York has a 15 per cent concentration.

London's Wi-Fi collection is also the least secure. According to the survey, just 48 per cent of the city's wireless networks utilised encryption systems. Paris claimed the top spot, with more than 72 per cent of its hotspots using advanced encryption schemes. New York was second with 49 per cent.

According to RSA's identity and access assurance vice president, Sam Curry, wireless users, and enterprise networks in particular, should hurry to protect their Wi-Fi systems with advanced encryption beyond that of the old Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) system.

"As wireless networks continue to improve in terms of speed, bandwidth, safety and ubiquity, this is good news for businesses and consumers alike," said Curry.

"However, the potential consequences of unidentified users and applications accessing sensitive, private information are simply too serious to be ignored."