Hotspot operators strike international roaming deal

By Alun Williams

Posted on 12 Nov 2004 at 12:26

Five international wireless operators, including BT, have signed a series of roaming agreements to provide Wi-Fi access at 20,000 hotspots across eleven countries.

The four other operators involved are StarHub (covering Singapore), T-Mobile (covering Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, UK, US), Telstra (covering Australia) and Telecom Italia (covering Italy).

It means BT Openzone users will be able to use their existing subscriptions for wireless broadband at these international hotspots.

'It is critical, for the future of Wi-Fi, that major operators join forces to promote and drive awareness of the benefits of using hotspots,' said Chris Clark, chief executive of BT Wireless Broadband. 'This agreement across members of the WBA will help break down the barrier of hotspot locations being linked to particular providers and ensure customers benefit from the geographical strengths of all five operating companies.'

'Mobility has become an essential part of many business people's lives,' he added, 'and this is another step towards BT's mobility vision of providing customers with access to all their applications and information, wherever they are.'

Coming into effect immediately, BT promises no extra charge for the roaming for the rest of 2004. Prices for international roaming in 2005 and beyond, however, will be determined at a 'later date', stated BT.

The announcement was made in San Francisco - a city bidding to provide free Wi-Fi access - at a meeting of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA).

A full list of hotspot locations should be available at www.btopenzone.com/locations. Users wishing to use one of the new international locations will have to do so via the WBA members' roaming login page from which they select BT Openzone as the service provider to use.