Fone Forum

BRITISH TELECOM (BT) said that it will allow unlimited access to 1.5 million BT FON and BT Openzone WiFi hotspots across the UK for millions of its Total Broadband users.

This will include O2's mobile customers who are about to have their 3G access rationed as they upgrade to new devices.

It will mean that millions of people with smartphones, laptops, netbooks and burgeoning numbers of other devices such as Ipads and notebooks can still have fast, reliable Internet access when away from their homes and offices.

In a statement, BT said that BT FON is a rapidly expanding WiFi community of people who can take their broadband with them by sharing access securely with other BT FON members when out and about across the UK.

BT Openzone is a WiFi service that can be accessed in public places such as airports, hotels, coffee shops, motorway service stations and city centres.

Previously, BT Total Broadband users had time limits on WiFi available to use at BT FON and BT Openzone hotspots, depending on their BT Total Broadband option.

However the outfit has decided to offer unlimited WiFi access across all of its Total Broadband options.

John Petter, consumer managing director for BT retail, said there are growing numbers of BT customers with mobile devices such as tablet computers and smartphones who need to get online on the move.

"Now that operators like O2 are rationing 3G, BT Total Broadband customers can find fast WiFi connections all over the UK's towns and cities with unlimited Internet access from 1.5 million hotspots," he said.

BT expanded its FON and Openzone networks by 800,000 hotspots during 2009 and it expects to have over 2.5 million hotspots by the end of 2011, he added.

He also said that BT will release a downloadable application for BT FON and BT Openzone users that will make finding hotspots and moving between them simpler.

Source:-   TheInquirer (http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1686788/bt-unlimited-access-million-wifi-hotspots).