For those who don't know, next week - November 8-12 - is Internet Week Europe, and to celebrate the occasion, Skype is helping everyone to get online. The company will be subsidising the cost of thousands of public Wi-Fi hotspots across the country, giving free wireless access to pretty much anyone who needs it.
The event is designed to celebrate web culture and companies and mimics a similar event held every year in New York. The BBC, Yahoo, Google, Channel 4 and Lonely Planet will all be getting involved as a part of more than 80 events that will be hosted in and around London.
According to the event's Co-Chairman, David-Michel Davies, "Internet Week Europe is all about the impact that the web has on our daily lives, from business to entertainment. What better way to celebrate that impact than partnering with Skype to make the Internet more accessible than ever".
Luckily, you won't have to be in the capital to take advantage of the free Wi-Fi. The company will pay for access to any public hotspot in the UK through its Skype Access program, which will work with BT Openzone, The Cloud and a number of other UK providers.
To get online, you'll need to boot up the Skype client - PC and mobile versions should both work - and select the nearest publicly available network. A few of them won't be compatible with Skype Access, but you should get a friendly pop-up telling you to select another if you run across this.
