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At the 2024 editions of West End Live and Pride in London, Ontix provided free public Wi-Fi in Trafalgar Square. Computer Weekly also reports a separate private fixed wireless access (FWA) connection for West End Live’s CCTV and electronic point-of-sale systems. The account is a case study in using attendee Wi-Fi alongside operational connectivity—not evidence that either event’s public Wi-Fi was 5G.
What connectivity did the 2024 events have?
Ontix said it supplied free public Wi-Fi in Trafalgar Square for both events. Transport for London’s July 2024 board report lists West End Live and Pride in London among major events considered for transport planning, including Pride on 29 June 2024. TfL’s board report provides the event context; Computer Weekly’s July 2024 report and Ontix’s year-end account describe the Wi-Fi provision.
The public network was for visitors’ devices and general connectivity. Computer Weekly reports that West End Live also had private FWA support for CCTV and electronic point-of-sale systems. The available reporting does not describe the same private operational network for Pride in London.
What did the public Wi-Fi enable?
According to Computer Weekly, Ontix reported that its network carried over 100 GB of data for Pride in London and 130 GB for West End Live. Those are provider-reported traffic volumes, not independently audited totals or counts of people connected.
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Ontix also said its connectivity enabled more than 100,000 event-goers across the events to stream, communicate and share experiences. That is the company’s reported reach, not an independently verified unique-user count. It should not be conflated with Computer Weekly’s separate attendance figures: more than 70,000 West End Live attendees and over 32,000 Pride parade participants, with thousands more visitors. Those figures describe different groups and scopes.
How were the event networks set up?
Computer Weekly reports that Wi-Fi units were installed on existing street furniture, including lampposts, and used existing fibre. Ontix’s permanent Westminster street-furniture installations are connected to a long-term concession with the council, according to the report. The event coverage does not establish that every component was installed only for these events or detail the network’s technical design.
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The reported arrangement involved two distinct roles:
- Public Wi-Fi: a connection option for attendees’ devices in Trafalgar Square.
- Private FWA at West End Live: reported support for operational systems, specifically CCTV and electronic point of sale.
These are complementary uses, not competing services. The sources do not specify technical performance, the precise FWA architecture, or whether the private support arrangement also applied to Pride.
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What benefits are—and are not—established?
Ontix head of engineering Tom Hayden told Computer Weekly that Wi-Fi can take thousands of people’s connectivity demand off mobile networks. That is the provider’s explanation of the potential benefit, not a measured finding about how much mobile-network load fell at these events. Ontix also described the setup as helping create an efficient environment for large-scale events, but the reporting offers no independent before-and-after evidence that it improved operations.
The sources provide no independent measurements of Wi-Fi speed, latency, uptime, user satisfaction or operational impact. The claims about traffic, reach and reduced mobile-network burden should therefore be understood as supplier-reported, rather than as independently verified performance results.
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Was the attendee Wi-Fi 5G?
The reports describe public Wi-Fi, not attendee access to a 5G small-cell network. Ontix’s separate 5G work elsewhere in its 2024 account is a different deployment and should not be used to relabel the event Wi-Fi.
Does this describe later editions?
No. The evidence concerns the 2024 events and does not confirm the network arrangement, concession terms or event details for subsequent editions. West End Live is presented by Westminster City Council and the Society of London Theatre, with support from the Mayor of London, according to Underbelly’s event archive. The same archive records Underbelly’s Pride in London producer role as covering 2014–2017; it does not establish a current production role.
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