All Orange iPhone users suffering long-term BT Openzone fault

NFH

Orange_Company_Representative wrote: »

Although I realise this might not immediately help any customers who have given up trying to use BT Openzone hotspots

Thanks Darren again for your reply.

I'm not so concerned about helping customers who have previously tried using BT Openzone, but about helping all the other customers who are struggling to use Orange's 3G data network. Most Orange iPhone customers continue to use 3G data while within range of BT Openzone hotspots, which unnecessarily congests the 3G network for the rest of us. What is Orange going to do to encourage those customers to use BT Openzone instead in order to free up valuable 3G capacity for those of us who are not within range of BT Openzone hotspots?

Orange_Company_Representative

Hi NFH

You make a very good point, as if more people were making use of Openzone hotspots this would reduce the demand on our 3G network. I've passed this on as a suggestion to the people responsible for the release of the new app. I hope they will keep this in mind as we move forward.

Thanks!

Darren from Orange Helpers

chris_w_5

Hi,

I've been following this thread with interest as I have only recently signed up to orange with an iphone 4.

Does the Orange representative have a view on timescales for this new app?

Thanks

Chris

Orange_Company_Representative

Hi chris_w

I'm just contacting some people involved with the release of the new app to see if I can get any more details on when to expect it to be available. I'll post again in the thread as soon as I have any more information.

Thanks

Darren from Orange Helpers

NFH

Orange_Company_Representative wrote: »

I'm just contacting some people involved with the release of the new app to see if I can get any more details on when to expect it to be available. I'll post again in the thread as soon as I have any more information.

Thanks Darren. We look forward to the update. In the meantime, I've spotted a bit of a contradiction between your two previous posts:

Orange_Company_Representative wrote: »

I'm happy to confirm that a new Orange Wi-Fi app will be coming soon. This is completely separate to the existing Orange Wi-Fi Finder app.

Orange_Company_Representative wrote: »

Although customers won't be contacted directly to advise of the new app, if they already have the Orange Wi-Fi Finder app installed they will be notified that a new version of the app is available in the Updates section of the App Store.

Having an existing app can't cause a notification of a new app, only notification of an update to the existing app. I can't see how anyone will be alerted to the existence of the new app. Please could you clarify.

Orange_Company_Representative

Hi NFH

Sorry for the contradiction there. I had advised that the new app was completely separate to the existing app, in order to make clear that any references to the Orange Wi-Fi app being seen on the BT Openzone portal were not referring to the current Orange Wi-Fi Finder app.

Although the Orange Wi-Fi app is a new app, it is being released as an update to the existing Orange Wi-Fi Finder app. Customers with the old app will be notified of the new app via the Updates screen of the App Store, and it will then replace the old app on their phone. The new app will also contain similar hotspot locating features to the old app, as well as the authentication features previously mentioned.

Testing is still progressing on the new app and I hope to be able to advise of a release date very shortly.

Thanks

Darren from Orange Helpers

allan673

i bet it doesnt work, they shouldnt even include this feature on the iphone tariff as it never worked for me !!!

littlerichard

I was told by orange that there would be a new bt openzone app for orange users released soon.

Also the login page in a bt openzone area once you have selected orange, asks you to enter you details.

After doing this multiple times - it constantly reloads the orange login page.

Click on having problems and it says to check your details. Done that and have reset my login password multiple times.

It then says that the orange wifi app will automatically log you on. What I am finding now is that when in a bt openzone my iPhone switches to it with the wifi icon, yet it never loads any web pages.

Half way there maybe orange? But still not working like it should.

littlerichard

Just to add to my previous post. When the icon shows bt openzone. It is the bt fon network it is seeing. Because I installed their app to try and resolve the problem.

But as this cannot be used by orange customers, I am back to where I was originally. No bt openzone access.

Thanks.

NFH

littlerichard wrote: »

Just to add to my previous post. When the icon shows bt openzone. It is the bt fon network it is seeing.

This is another problem completely different from the Orange/BT issue. Many BT home broadband connections broadcast a "BT Openzone" SSID but iPhone users (from any mobile network) can't use it. This is BT's fault, as they really should have chosen a different SSID for this service. After all, these hotspots usually broadcast a "BTFON" SSID as well, so BT should just stick with that one. Most iPhones connect automatically to these "BT Openzone" SSIDs but most users can't then log in. BT needs to sort this out.

Years ago I bought a Fon router for €5 which allows me use any of these BTFON hotspots for free as well as millions of other Fon hotspots around the world. I have to log in manually every time which is a real pain, but at least I can use these hotspots. Other Fon users can likewise use my internet connection, but according to the logs nobody ever has done so because you need to be inside my house to get a signal from the Fon router.