Mayor of London campaigns to increase capital's wireless hotspots

The Mayor of London's office is stepping up its campaign to build out the capital's IT infrastructure and get more of the population online before the Olympics next year.

Kulveer Ranger, director of environment and digital London at the Mayor's office, spoke at an Amazon Web Services start-up workshop on Monday and reinforced Boris Johnson's pledge to increase the number of wireless hotspots in the capital.

"I told Boris that we can lobby for more infrastructure to get more people online. We are telling companies to invest. We want more infrastructure," he said. "We have the greatest show on Earth next year, and we need to deliver the greatest scalability."

Ranger also congratulated BT for increasing the number of Wi-Fi hotspots in London to 500,000 for the Olympics, and asked for more internet service providers to follow suit.

He also called for the further development of east London's growing 'Tech City', and particularly for more investment from venture capitalists and big business.

"We need those in the City that have tens of thousands of pounds in their pocket to invest," said Ranger. "There are those in east London who feel that the City is passing them by. We need to engage with them."

Johnson called last week for London's businesses to take advantage of the increasing number of wireless hotspots during the Olympics.

Bjorn Thorngren, EMEA director at Wi-Fi firm Boingo Wireless, unsurprisingly welcomed the news.

"These days, people expect to have an internet connection wherever they are and wherever they need it, especially for highly anticipated events such as the Olympics," he told V3.

"The proliferation of Wi-Fi for London 2012 provides a cost-effective solution for sports fans to watch the action on the go."