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BT OpenZone

Hi all,
I just noticed that a new BTopen zone + BT Fon wireless connection in my locality. I think it may come from the pub down the road. Do these zones have to say where there are from on the welcome page? I'll ask the LL next time I go for a pint! A pint of John Smiths and an hours surfing please!

Comments

  • iniltous
    iniltous Posts: 3,486 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    New BTBB cutomers get their connection set for FON as a default, you now have to opt out instead of opt in, so a neighbour may have just got TBB, if you go on the FON website map it shows hotspots, and although not 100% accurate, its close enough, put in your postcode and all the close by hotspots are displayed
  • Gloomendoom
    Gloomendoom Posts: 16,551 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I just got an email from Fon/BT announcing that there are now over one million Fon/Bt access points in the UK.

    It's a pity that most of them aren't actually turned on.

    From my (not too scientific) testing only one in about every five UK Fon access points displayed as live on the location map is actually turned on and available to other Fon users.
  • iniltous
    iniltous Posts: 3,486 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I just got an email from Fon/BT announcing that there are now over one million Fon/Bt access points in the UK.

    It's a pity that most of them aren't actually turned on.

    From my (not too scientific) testing only one in about every five UK Fon access points displayed as live on the location map is actually turned on and available to other Fon users.
    Did you go and sit outside peoples houses and try to connect to come to your conclusion ?. if BT were just going to make up the number they could have said 4 to 5 million hotspots ( approx number of BTBB customers)...As the FON/Openzone part of the hub is administered centrally than I'm pretty sure they can do an accurate count of the number of hubs set to be a FON hub,
  • kwikbreaks
    kwikbreaks Posts: 9,187 Forumite
    Many people turn off their routers when they are not using them.....
  • Gloomendoom
    Gloomendoom Posts: 16,551 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 16 February 2010 at 12:17PM
    iniltous wrote: »
    Did you go and sit outside peoples houses and try to connect to come to your conclusion ?. if BT were just going to make up the number they could have said 4 to 5 million hotspots ( approx number of BTBB customers)...As the FON/Openzone part of the hub is administered centrally than I'm pretty sure they can do an accurate count of the number of hubs set to be a FON hub,

    Sort of! Although it was more of a case of try one advertised hotspot location, find it doesn't work, then move to the next hotspot, find it doesn't work... and so on. Then give up and find a pub with wireless access.

    If I turn off my FON router it pretty quickly shows as turned off on the the online availability map. If I don't turn it back on I get an email warning me that I will lose access to FON spots.

    I have noticed that, in every case that I have experienced, it is the FON hotspots on the BT routers that show as available, but aren't. I'm beginning to suspect that the FON availability map simply shows whether a BT router is on or off, and does not necessarilly show that the FON service is enabled.
  • ACDeag
    ACDeag Posts: 742 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker
    I just got an email from Fon/BT announcing that there are now over one million Fon/Bt access points in the UK.

    It's a pity that most of them aren't actually turned on.

    From my (not too scientific) testing only one in about every five UK Fon access points displayed as live on the location map is actually turned on and available to other Fon users.

    It could also be that the signal does not penetrate to the street. Someone I know has one, but the hub is at the back of the house and there is no way the signal would reach the street.
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