Hot (spot) in the city - a Wi-Fi tour of London

"Sometimes it's up and sometimes it's down. We're only the host company, we can't help at all," was the helpful reply from staff at the first Starbucks we visited. Not exactly what we'd expected from the US coffee chain that is supposedly leading the pack when it comes to wireless access with around 50 sites, in 21 towns and cities. To be fair, at least the staff knew the hot spot existed -- even if they didn't know anything else about it.

As we had already set up a BT Openzone account, logging on was pretty painless. Once again though, the staff weren't much help, looking equally alarmed and vacant when asked about wireless. We were the only patrons using a laptop even though the cafe borders the creative, media-savvy environs of Farringdon and Clerkenwell. The speed test revealed a 492Kbps connection -- a quarter of the capacity available at the previous Openzone site at the Thistle.

Taking the test a step further, we decided to check the boundary of the network by leaving Costa and walking across the road laptop in hand. Keeping an eye out for would-be muggers and speeding couriers, we made it all the way to the McDonalds on the other side of the street -- some 60 metres away -- without losing access. The connection cut out when we went into the eatery but the experiment shows that if there's a handy park very near a hot spot there's no reason to pay for coffee every time you want to connect. How long you'll hang on to your laptop if you start using outside it in some of London's earthier outdoor spaces is another question.

This pleasant sandwich bar, slap bang in the livelier side of Soho, is helping to pioneer a new approach to Wi-Fi. Rather than charging surfers an eye-watering fee, Benugo is offering "virtually free Wi-Fi" -- treating it as an added extra.

Any customer who spends just £2 on food or drink gets 30 minutes of wireless access. This rises to £4 during the lunchtime rush, but even this is no more than a couple of coffees and a cake.

Does this mean that users get a poorer service? Not in our experience. The staff are as adept at explaining the ropes (you're handed a little bit of paper printed with an access code with your purchase) as they were at rustling up sandwiches.

Once connected, we found that a connection speed of around 480Kbps, and with no other users around it appears we had sole access to a 512Kbps line.

Perhaps we were lucky -- according to one staff member: "We get a lot of people coming in and using the wireless network."

After our disappointing experience at the Fenchurch Street Starbucks, we were keen to give the coffee chain another chance. Our virtue wasn't immediately rewarded, though, as we blundered into the wrong Wardour Street outlet (easy mistake, as there are two Starbucks on the same road).

Fortunately, we were pointed in the right direction and one quickly gulped espresso later we made it to number 60, where a sign on the door advertising a "T-mobile hot spot" showed that all was well.

The staff were aware that the wireless network was installed and working, and every table sported a leaflet explaining what a Wi-Fi was and how to get connected.

Registering with the T-Mobile HotSpot UK service was easy, though at £5.50 for one hour this was the most expensive tariff after BT's £6.

Once connected, we got around 980Kbps of bandwidth, which suggested that, once again, we were the only people using a 1Mb pipe. Despite appearances, it seems that other people do indeed use the hot spots. "We get plenty of people using the Wi-Fi at lunchtime," explained one staff member, who added that some people even resort to standing in the doorway after closing time to access the network. "You can even use it at night from outside, by putting your laptop against the door."

The people at Internet Exchange are old hands at public Internet access, with years of experience of running Web cafes. They have recently begun offering Wi-Fi at selected stores, under the Surf and Sip brand, so we braved the Covent Garden buskers to give their service a whirl.

Internet Exchange claims that the presence of trained staff at its stores puts it ahead of other Wi-Fi operators. We're inclined to give this statement some backing -- the man behind the counter explained the service and the pricing, and told us to ask him for help if there were any problems connecting.

We joined the Surf and Sip network, paying £5 for a day's access. Once again there were no other Wi-Fi users, and once again we were assured that "quite a few people use the Wi-Fi network each day" (including plenty of tourists, apparently).

The bandwidth varied between 1650Kbps and 1886Kbps, suggesting a total of 2Mb of bandwidth was available. Perhaps someone else was also logged on, at the front desk or even outside.

Like T-mobile, Surf and Sip sends you an emailed receipt, followed by a letter of thanks. In this second missive, company president Rick Ehrlinspiel vowed that his firm would strive to keep the networks running, but warned that certain incidents, such as "a blown fuse while an employee was making a smoothie while toasting bread while microwaving soup" -- could scupper them.