While searching for the mysterious blue box, and spotting it in Southbank, Mahler says "Are we sure this time? Earl's Court was an embarrassment." In real life, there is a Blue Police Box outside the Earl's Court Underground Station - the only one left in London.
The author of the book that Artie is reading is Amelia Williams, the married name of The Doctor's previous companion, Amy Pond.
This is only the second time since the revival the TARDIS' police box phone has rung. The other time was for the Ninth Doctor in The Empty Child (2005)
"The Bells of Saint John" is a reference to the ringing TARDIS. The TARDIS of the Eleventh Doctor has the Saint John (Ambulance) image on the door.
Steven Moffat described the premise as "the traditional Doctor Who thing of taking something omnipresent in your life and making it sinister, if something did get in the Wi-Fi, we'd be kind of screwed. Nobody had really done it before, so I thought, 'It's time to get kids frightened of Wi-Fi!". However, he denied that his intention was to give a warning about technology, but rather tell an adventure story about a "new way [for aliens] to invade" based on something viewers were familiar with. Moffat said that the episode was "an action roller coaster" rather than a story intended to be scary.