BT partners with FON to create community Wi-Fi network extending coverage footprint
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Published:
Week 41
October 2007 -
Image Source:
BT
News:
BT has announced a strategic partnership with FON to create a shared Wi-Fi community in the UK. BT Total Broadband customers will be invited to join the community by sharing some of their bandwidth via their existing BT Home Hub.
At launch, new members will be part of an existing global community of 500,000 members and will have access to more than 190,000 FON hotspots worldwide. Anyone joining in will be able to use those FON hotspots across the world and all the new BT FON hotspots free of charge. Members will also be able to use BT’s premium existing hotspot network BT Openzone, including 12 Wireless Cities.
BT FON aims to build a huge community Wi-Fi network, covering hundreds of thousands of hotspots, in a short space of time, under the slogan “Wi-Fi for everyone, I’m in”. The secure open Wi-Fi solution was developed by FON and BT’s research labs. Support for FON involves an update to existing Home Hub firmware.
BT has invested in Madrid-based FON as part of the deal and will also have a seat on its board. BT will join the company’s other investors, Google, Skype, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital. To date, FON has been strongest in the Spanish, Japanese, and French markets.
