BT says its Wi-Fi kibbutz isn't targeting 3G

BT has played down suggestions its new Wi-Fi sharing initiative is designed to compete with 3G mobile broadband in future. It will bid to improve coverage by opening the network to other ISPs' customers, however. The telco launched a bid with Spanish start-up FON yesterday to persuade its two million Home Hub router owners to …

[Alex]

BT & mobile VoIP

I've repeatedly tried to run Gizmo VoIP on my Nokia N96 with very limited sucess when inside the house, even with my BT Home Hub on the window (with a sheet of tinfoil 'directing' the signal outwards). the service would drop the connection quite regularly and the quality was poor (echo, delay). I'd be very suprised if any update could turn the HomeHub into a viable phone network. As for web access, there's not much call for 'on the run' web browsing but I suppose it could be viable for running a push/pull mail client?

[Misha Gale]

buy a special router?

I was getting quite excited for a minute there. See, this actually looks like a pretty cool idea, assuming it actually works, but not cool enough to convince me to drink the BT kool-aid.

As a Be* customer, I liked the idea of it being open to other ISPs, but I can't see Be* (or most other ISPs) abanding their BeBox (Speedtouch 780 I think) for some BT approved tinker toy. What's wrong with an open spec that would allow any router to use the system? Seems to me that if BT made it easier to get in on this scheme, the scheme as a whole would prosper due to the ubiquity of hostspots. Give everyone a piece of the pie but *make a bigger pie*.

[AMc]

It has been said

"Why would BT want to schmooze two men who have done more to drive down its voice revenues than most, and are now behind a competitor to BT's Vision IPTV service in Joost? Just asking"

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?

[Jove]

Will also be able to buy vouchers

From the FAQs on the BT FON site, non-BT customers will also be able to buy vouchers from the BT Openzone site - you only need to buy the special router for your broadband connection if you want to contribute to the number of access points by joining the FON community.

[Joel]

@Misha Gale

The Fon network routers are based on OpenWRT, so you can utilise a Linksys WRT54g (versions 1-4) which support OpenWRT....

You don't have to have a BT box....