Broadband Britain Boosted By New Wi-Fi Hotspots
Broadband Britain came a step closer yesterday with news that BT is converting almost 100 of its phone boxes into special Wi-Fi hotspots.
The telecoms operator plans to have installed BT Openzone access points in 91 broadband enabled pay phones by the end of this week and more than 200 kiosks will have the service by Christmas. The move could see the creation of up to 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots over the next few years.
The first 200 sites will be located in the UK’s biggest towns and cities where there is a large concentration of people. The technology will allow users to connect to the nearest Wi-Fi phone box from up 100 metres away, meaning they could access the internet whilst sitting in a sit in a bar or restaurant.
Commenting on the initiative, Dave Hughes, chief executive of BT Wireless Broadband, said: “The deal to put Openzone in some of BT’s vast network of payphones is evidence that we are serious in our aim to take wireless broadband to every street in Britain.”
He added: “But we have carefully targeted kiosks which cover nearby small hotels or restaurants so that workers will be able to take advantage of the power of mobile broadband from a comfortable and secure location.”
Earlier this year BT unveiled plans to install Wi-Fi hotspots in 1,000 pubs, cafés and restaurants across the UK, in an attempt to increase the popularity of its high speed internet services (see BT To Transform Pubs And Cafés In To WiFi Hotspots).
Wi-Fi is a rapidly growing area of the broadband market and figures from Dell’Oro Group show that worldwide sales of wireless networking products increased slightly in the first three months of 2003.
However, recent research from Forester claims that public wireless local area network points will largely be a failure. Senior analyst, Lars Godell warned: “Simply, basic constraints on the number of devices in use and users’ willingness to pay a significant amount for internet access on the go will limit public WLAN users to numbers well short of planned networks’ carrying capacity.”
BT: 0207 469 2337 www.btplc.co.uk
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