From my current experience, ANY mobile broadband is useless and a waste of time and money.
I'm not too up on the latest young folks' gadgetry, but is wi-fi the same as mobile broadband? (Isn't that a dongle that uses cellphone towers?) Ah. I see the comprehension problem (at my end) In Britain, we call those little phones you carry around with you, "mobile phones", (not "cell phones", although of course we know what that phrase means) and so "mobile broadband" is a specific thing, it is a service you can get from a "mobile provider" (cell phone company) and it uses the mobile (cell) provider's system to provide internet connectivity via "mobile phone base stations" ("cell phone towers"). Wi-fi is another thing, a kind of wireless LAN connection like you get inside buildings and at Starbucks or from your home wireless router. (Isn't it?)
And if it is free, it won't be my money they are wasting, me not being an O2 customer or a Westminster or Kensington & Chelsea local-tax-paying resident. I see that John Hunt, of "independent broadband review site thinkbroadband.com", said the service would be handy for overseas tourists worried about expensive mobile costs. but that residents living in the free wi-fi areas should not be considering ditching their home connection. "The problem you will have is that the wireless may not be fast enough to support everything you want to do. I don't think it will necessarily replace home broadband - it's more a complementing service."
By the way, "street furniture" is stuff like lamp posts, CCTV poles, traffic lights, sign poles, etc,
