The Cloud, Europe’s largest WiFi provider, is set to roll out city-wide WiFi hotspot networks in the United Kingdom starting this early 2006. The said network will cover the cities of London, Manchester and Birmingham, among others, connecting more than four million WiFi users in the country.

The company, which services the UK, Sweden and Germany with at least 6,000 wireless hotspots, is targeting the network at the upcoming generation of WiFi-enabled mobile phones, and the existing stock of WiFi-enabled gadgets such as laptops and handheld gaming consoles. The Cloud commonly enters into co-branding agreements with existing Internet Service Providers, gaming networks and even telecommunications companies. Hence, clients of such networks as O2, British Telecom Openzone, SkypeZones and Nintendo WiFi will automatically enjoy the added benefits of being connected via the said city-wide hotspot network. The Cloud hopes to bring in more providers into their fold.

Such a wide deployment of a WiFi-compatible network signals an imminent threat of WiFi to the traditional cellular network business model. WiFi networks potentially allow users to bypass the existing telco infrastructure, using Internet-based protocols such as VoIP and instant messaging to communicate with other connected individuals. However, as in the case of The Cloud’s telco partners, it seems that mobile providers are not necessarily against innovation in the field of telecommunications.

The prospective growth possibilities presented by the enhanced capacity and increased bandwidth brought about by telcos’ and end users’ adoption of WiFi might just be the magic bullet that will bring about the telecommunications industry’s moving up to third-generation–or 3G–mobile services. WiFi might as well be the standard that the whole world would adopt for wireless transmission of high-fidelity video, audio, and data.