Wireless internet coming to a hotel room near you

Hotel chain Queens Moat Houses is to install wireless LAN hotspots throughout all its 92 locations across the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.

The hotel group will use Swisscom Eurospot’s service, with data transfer rates of up to 11Mbps.

Mike O'Mahoney, finance and commercial director of Queens Moat Houses, said in a statement: “Wireless is the next generation communication media for high speed access to information, and working with Swisscom provides this service for our guests."

The service will allow business travellers to connect to the internet via a wireless internet-enabled laptop or personal digital assistant (PDA). The device automatically locates the wireless LAN and the connection is made in a few seconds by following a set of on-screen instructions.

Frédéric Gastaldo, CEO of Swisscom Eurospot, said in a statement that the company is aiming for a pan-European cross-border WLAN network.

"We aim to have the largest cross-border WLAN network in Europe and open it to all major third parties service providers so each traveller can access it easily.”

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.