News

E-mail kiosks debut in London's West End

March 20, 2002

London's Westminster City Council has begun a nine-month test of 30 i-plus interactive kiosks, the London online technology service vnunet reported.

The test will cost the city council about $570,000. Kiosks will be placed throughout London's West End shopping and tourist districts.

According to vnunet, the kiosks, made by Cityspace, provide free e-mail and information about jobs, transportation, sightseeing, local entertainment and national news. Residents can use the machines to contact local government departments.

The i-plus units cost around $14,000 to deploy. Annual costs will run about $7,000 per kiosk. The machines use Cityspace's Pavement operating system running on Windows 2000, vnunet reported.

According to the company's Web site, Cityspace, founded in 1995, operates i-plus kiosks in cooperation with local government authorities. i-plus machines operate in the London Boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Southwark, Islington and Bromley, and indoor London locations such as Madame Tussaud's and the Natural History Museum.

Cityspace plans to increase the network to 4,000 machines in the UK within three to five years. It opened an office opened in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1999.