Huge growth in public WiFi use, says The Cloud

A recent report from The Cloud highlights the growing trend of spending time online through WiFi.

It seems the UK is fast becoming a nation that increasingly chooses to spend their time online, according to data from The Cloud’s network of over 22,000 public hotspots. The figures showed a 78% increase in the amount of time logged on to public WiFI in 2014 when compared to 2013.

While access to public WiFi has improved, the results still illustrate how many more residents of the UK look to log on when out and about. In fact, last year alone, 28 billion minutes were whiled away online through The Cloud.

UK spends more money online than any other nation

“The UK is a digital nation. We spend more money online shopping than any other country and almost 60 per cent of us regularly access the internet from mobile devices,” said Roger Matthews, commercial director of The Cloud.

With a digital sector that’s worth £71 billion, it’s easy to understand why there’s a growing trend of demand for reliable high-speed connectivity. As users become accustomed to experiencing the internet’s increasingly rich content with minimal loading times, more users are taking to auto-connecting to public WiFi to save on their data plans.

“This demand for mobile connectivity has led to a record number of consumers signing up to The Cloud, with the active user base growing from nine million to now over 12 million, a 34% increase in the last year alone,” Mr Matthews added.

Tablet use to continue growing in 2015

Indeed, data from the network report adds weight to the comments of Mr Matthews, as 89 per cent of users logging on to the public network utilised a smartphone. Most of the newcomers accessed with an Android device, which saw 49% growth in 2014 from the previous year. Furthermore, tablet users were a fifth higher (21%) than in 2013 and The Cloud sees this trend continuing into 2015.

“We are an increasingly digital generation and the larger screens that tablets offer are well-suited to content-obsessed consumers who devour everything from movies to gaming,” explained Mr Matthews.