London - the WiFi capital of the world
Posted 18 March 2008 at 8:00AM by Ian Betteridge in Email and communications
According to Businessweek, London is now officially the wireless networking capital of the world, with usage of hotspots soaring by 156% over the past year. And, as you might expect, business users are at the forefront of WiFi usage.
But what's interesting is where they're using it. As well as the places you'd expect - hotels, travel terminals, and the ubiquitous coffee shops - there are others too. Restaurants, for example.
Now I don't know about you, but when I'm sitting down to eat, I'm generally less focused on work than on filling my stomach - and I really don't want to check my email. And if I'm with someone else, then surely pulling out my laptop for a quick browse of the web is just rude?
Perhaps what we really need is a system of etiquette, a kind of Miss Manners for the hotspot generation. At least then we might avoid making some social faux pas while we log on to the net.
Tags: bt, bt broadbandoffice, hotspots, wi-fi, wifi, wifi hotspots
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Comments
2. At March 18, 2008 8:58 AM, G S wrote:
I am dreading the influx of calls to the tech support desk when the firmware upgrade goes through, millions of angry customers because someone is stealing their bandwidth... my job is going to be interesting when this happens...
3. At March 18, 2008 9:22 AM, shane mcmahon wrote:
I could not agree more with you father, though what is this that you are on about? BT Buisness hub owners having BT Openzone? What is that, and why are bt doing this do us without our concent? Being a IT Buisness, our broadband is a must have, and why would the degrade our service further?
4. At March 18, 2008 9:24 AM, Pat wrote:
Good news I suppose, or just it suggest that we are spending too much time on our bottoms on the wiffy?
I have concerns about my business hub being used by other people - will that impact my security?
5. At March 18, 2008 12:05 PM, vincent mcmahon wrote:
Openzone is disabled by default G S.
and thats the bottom line!
6. At March 18, 2008 12:08 PM, vincent mcmahon wrote:
RE: Pat
no it wont.
Its apparently 100% secure
7. At March 18, 2008 3:23 PM, Ian Betteridge wrote:
Assuming it's the same BT FON system that they're using with consumer broadband, it's actually rather neat. There's a maximum amount of your bandwidth which can be used (I think the default is 512Kbps), so you shouldn't find yourself swamped) and it all works very seamlessly - to the rest of the world it looks like a totally different wireless network to yours (called, unsurprisingly, "BT Openzone").
8. At March 18, 2008 5:05 PM, Dark Djinn wrote:
Look, like it or not, facilities like Openzone are the future and if you want to be a part of it, you have to learn to share.
I know for one you wouldn't mind using someone else's bandwidth if you absolutely needed to because your broadband was out and you had absolutely no choice (or so you thought) and it is available to you at no extra cost (already paid for as part of your service or you have subscribed to it).
To take a little, you have to learn to give a little. Most exchanges in London are upgraded such that you would probably not even notice that 512kbps of your connection is being utilised. In any case, the way the facility is designed to work, it should have little impact (if any) on your throughput....but then again, I beginning to make sense, so I'll leave it at that.
9. At March 19, 2008 8:18 AM, vincent mcmahon wrote:
RE ian
thats what i just said....
10. At March 19, 2008 10:54 AM, the master chief wrote:
i wus worried that what if someone uses my FON to stream illegal stuff ?
mmm vincent works for bt eh ? no wonder he grumbles a lot on all blogs !
11. At March 19, 2008 3:01 PM, Zao wrote:
Well, from what I've been told, anything that gets downloaded gets referred to the persons account that is connecting, so if someone downloads dodgy pron on your connection, it will be his head that rolls not yours.
Also people who connect on Openzone have no access to the router GUI or the network inside. So thats why it is secure.
Also, 512Kbs will not make a dent on anyone whose connection is over 2.5Megs, they just wouldn't really notice, only if someone is on a long line or has a connection problem, they will notice the problem, and anyhow, you can just disable it.
12. At March 19, 2008 3:52 PM, vincent mcmahon wrote:
i only grumble for entertainment value. you pleb.
13. At March 19, 2008 4:02 PM, the master chief wrote:
Zao,
thanks for your info.
14. At March 21, 2008 1:00 PM, Roger Roger wrote:
The WiFi spread can bring enhanced email mobility cost savings - Windows Mobile Version 6 comes with email push over WiFi, providing your email host supports (and BT Business Email Plus does) so rather than keep manually sync by POP/scheduled sync why not let openzone or local router Wifi or BT Fon push those emails and save GPRS costs. Version 5 supports WiFi but manual sync only. With Windows Mobile version 6 you can even get email push over WiFi without having GPRS on your SIM (something you can't do on V5)
15. At March 24, 2008 7:12 PM, zeshan wrote:
I dont think so that this 512kb thing will effect the user. EU will not have to share anything.
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1. At March 18, 2008 8:30 AM, vincent mcmahon wrote: