London Evening Standard
Date: October 4, 2013
Oxford Street was today hailed the most “connected” street in the world as research shows it has better free wi-fi than the biggest shopping areas in New York, Tokyo and Paris.
Data from extensive tests found that Oxford Street outstripped its rivals for free internet access, with a third of businesses providing free wifi.
This is in contrast to 5th Avenue where 26 per cent of businesses offered the service, 24 per cent on the Champs-Élysées and just nine per cent at the Ginza.
Using special devices, researchers from Devicescape walked around the four shopping areas to monitor and map out wi-fi availability.
The internet company said Oxford Street has the greatest wi-fi hotspot density in Europe and the best of any shopping street in the world.
David Nowicki, chief marketing officer of Devicescape, said: “Oxford Street, Champs-Élysées, 5th Avenue and the Ginza, those were the four we looked at in detail and what we found was that Oxford Street was the winner and it had some pretty unique qualities. 33 per cent of businesses there were offering wi-fi to customers.
“As well as the wi-fi offered by businesses to customers, what makes Oxford Street even better is that it has an outdoor system as well in the street. That means the experience in Oxford Street is far far better than in other places.
“It’s by far the greatest density of wi-fi that we’ve seen anywhere, but in particular compared to the world’s most famous street.”
It shows how London businesses are harnessing free internet services to encourage London shoppers and tourists to spend.
A recent study by Deloitte found that smartphone users will consistently return to a shop that has wi-fi – using the same one for more than 50 per cent of their trips. It also found that smartphone users who go into a store to use free wi-fi are 14 per cent more likely to spend money there.
Mr Nowicki added: “Businesses are finding that it’s good for business to have wifi in their shops…There’s a huge awareness these days around the cost of data, the cost of roaming.”
View the original article here: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/connected-oxford-street-has-better-free-wifi-than-nyc-tokyo-and-paris-8858420.html