BT puts WiFi in payphones

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 16 Sep 2003 at 16:27

BT is to install WiFi access to its public phone kiosks, with more than 200 Openzone access points installed by Christmas.

Dave Hughes, chief executive of BT Wireless Broadband, said: 'The deal to put Openzone in some of BT's vast network of payphones is evidence that we are serious in our aim to take wireless broadband to every street in Britain. We have carefully targeted kiosks which cover nearby small hotels or restaurants so that workers will be able to take advantage of the power of mobile broadband from a comfortable and secure location.'

This makes a good deal of sense when you consider the success, or lack of it, of the Rabbit service of the early eighties - nobody wants to phone (or surf) outside. However, targetting areas where workers regularly pass through during their lunch breaks could mean that cafes and restaurants already brimming with diners receive a deluge of laptop-wielding road warriors that spend £2 on a coffee and sit there surfing for an hour or more.

We asked a BT spokesperson whether there are any agreements between BT and the premises where it expects people to access its phone box WiFi stations from. 'No, there is not,' we were told.

'The footprint doesn't always fall on commercial centres,' he said. 'Some of the locations we expect customers to use the Openzone service will be shopping centres and other public spaces.'

He also pointed out that cafes might welcome the extra business generated by the proximity of an Openzone-enabled phonebox. But with an initial rollout of just 200 Openzones, expect targetted areas to already enjoy a very high footfall. Some of these premises, such as Starbucks, might have already installed Openzone 'in-a-box' services find themselves competing for wireless custom in their own cafes.

The phoneboxes will be identified by a BT Openzone logo. We asked if customers would understand that BT Openzone equated to wireless access point. 'BT Openzone is the brand,' we were told, 'But we've found that people do understand what Wireless Lan and WiFi mean.' That's good, then.

Although the official range for such access points is 100m, BT expects this to be limited to a usable range of 60m. BT is confident that the installations will be robust enough to cope with the inclement British weather, and successfully tested a phonebox over last winter.

Prices for going online through an Openzone start from £10 a month for two hours' worth, or £6 for a one-hour pass, to £85 per month for unlimited access. Other pricing options are available at the www.bt.com/openzone website.

BT plans to have rolled out 200 Openzone-enabled phone boxes by Christmas, helping to meet its 4,000 target for hotspots in cafes, hotels and other places in the UK. The blue Internet kiosks, in which the majority of phone box Openzones are installed, are destined for a rollout of 20,000 over the next few years, according to BT.