XLN – a provider of phone, broadband, energy and card processing services to more than 100,000 British small businesses – will soon provide free public Wi-Fi, initially to 15,000 of its small business customers. This will allow these businesses to automatically offer free Wi-Fi to their customers.

This unprecedented move is then planned to be extended to all of XLN’s business broadband customers, which will further extend Wi-Fi coverage on every high street and postcode in the UK. 1 in 10 high street shops, 1 in 7 hairdressers and 1 in 10 restaurants are XLN customers, so the reach of this new service is huge.

For small businesses, this is big news. Having a simple, safe and cost effective way of providing free Wi-Fi to customers without resorting to shared passwords or expensive custom solutions is great for their business and bottom line. And in time, as XLN rolls out free Wi-Fi across its growing base, it will become the largest Wi-Fi network for small businesses in the UK, and that’s got to be great for consumers too.

XLN Wi-Fi is available exclusively to XLN broadband customers, and is activated remotely using existing equipment. And for the customers of these businesses, accessing XLN Wi-Fi is fast, free and user friendly. And the best bit? We’re giving it to our customers completely free of charge. Through XLN Wi-Fi, we’ll help to level the playing field, and give small businesses the chance to compete fairly with corporate chains.

The supporting wireless technology is provided by the new GlobalReach Technology Services division using its AAA and captive portal management platform and Benu vMEG. The solution provides XLN with a carrier-grade, community Wi-Fi network to offer tiered services to its business customers. It supports enhanced Wi-Fi features including roaming, Passpoint and analytics, to allow XLN to tailor its services for future developments.

Joint competition with GlobalReach to celebrate the launch

To celebrate the summer launch of XLN Wi-Fi, a competition will be running on XLN’s social media channels between 17th and 24th June. The competition will be co-run across Broadband Choice’s social channels, and the winner will receive an iPad Air.

This will all coincide with World Wi-Fi Day on 20th June 2016.

XLN Founder and CEO Christian Nellemann, said: ‘We’re going to create the single biggest small business Wi-Fi network in the UK, and we’re going to Wi-Fi enable every British high street – it’s as simple as that. This will give customers more reasons to choose small, independent businesses over corporate giants, and that means more support for independent high streets as a whole. For anyone that cares about their local high street, this is massive.’