Industry News

Hotel giant Marriott has been fined $600,000 (£375,716) for jamming guests' Wi-Fi at one of its establishments in America. The Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee blocked conference attendees' personal Wi-Fi networks, then charged them huge amounts for using the hotel's own connection, reported independent.co.uk. Visitors were required to pay as much as $1,000 per access point to get online, as the Marriott

Consumers in South Africa who fancy a cold beverage will now be able to connect to free Wi-Fi as well, after Coca-Cola installed routers in several of its vending machines. The scheme, a partnership with British Telecom, sees the soft-drink supplier testing Wi-Fi-enabled vending machines in Qunu, Umtata and Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga. If these locations are successful,

Some 1,000 payphones in Australia will now provide those nearby with an internet connection, as Telstra is turning them into free Wi-Fi hotspots. The new network will be switched on from November, just in time for the busy Christmas period. The phone booths chosen for Telstra's trial are located in popular tourist locations, such as Brisbane's Queen

All council schools in Cardiff are now connected to wireless internet in what is believed to be the largest single Wi-Fi network in Western Europe. Some 126 council schools across the city are benefitting from the scheme, which cost a total of £3.6 million. The new Wi-Fi is particularly important for those schools with outhouse buildings separate

American telecoms firm Verizon Wireless has followed in the footsteps of its competitor AT&T by announcing plans to introduce Wi-Fi calling in 2015. The company says the service will become available around the middle of next year, despite previously claiming that it wasn't interested in diverting customers away from standard mobile connections. Fran Shammo, Verizon's CFO, confirmed

Passengers flying with Virgin Atlantic will soon be able to enjoy on-board Wi-Fi of up to 70Mbps, thanks to a new partnership with Gogo. The deal means Virgin Atlantic is the first European carrier to use Gogo's 2Ku system. Moreover, the in-flight Wi-Fi is set to be much faster than Gogo's ground-based wireless broadband, which only reaches speeds of

UK airports have been criticised after a Skyscanner report revealed that only two offer completely free Wi-Fi access. Birmingham and London City airport both have free unlimited Wi-Fi, meaning users can browse for as long as they like without the fear of having to pay or get kicked off.Edinburgh, meanwhile, only allows two hours of free Wi-Fi,

Passengers using the services of Addison Lee will have access to superfast internet from next year, after the London minicab firm announced plans to make 4G Wi-Fi available in all of its vehicles. The decision was made after a successful trial was carried out across a small section of the company's fleet. The connectivity will