London wins on wireless

The annual Wireless Security Survey from security specialist RSA has revealed that while growth is slowing, London still has more access points than Paris and New York. The survey estimates that London has 12,276 active wireless access points. That number beat New York by more than 3,000. Though it was third in the number of access points, Paris was found to be the fastest growing among the three cities. Paris saw its total number of access points grow by some 543 per cent over the past year, compared with London's growth rate of 72 per cent and New York's of 45 per cent. And while London leads in the number of access points, the city has the smallest percentage of publicly available Wi-Fi points.

RSA estimates that just 5% of London's access points are public hotspots. In Paris, 6% of access points are hotspots, while New York has a 15% concentration. London's Wi-Fi collection is also the least secure. According to the survey, just 48% of the city's wireless networks used encryption systems. Paris claimed the top spot, with more than 72% of its hotspots using advanced encryption schemes. New York was second with 49%.