BT turns business customers into Wi-Fi hotspots

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 22 Apr 2008 at 12:31

BT has launched a new service which allows Business Total Broadband users to create an OpenZone Wi-Fi hotspot.

The move will allow cafés, shops or restaurants to create a hotspot for customers, at no extra cost over its existing broadband package.

However, BT will not be sharing profit from the scheme with companies that take up the offer. "We're not doing a revenue sharing arrangement," says Dave Hughes, director of wireless broadband at BT. "The offer we're making to the business customer is that they get a hotspot for free. What our customer can do is buy stock of our physical vouchers, and there is a margin on those vouchers." This margin is expected to be around 25% says Hughes.

The main incentive for businesses would be to offer another service for its customers, although this is likely to have less of an impact for businesses in urban areas where hotspots are already common. Users will not be allocated any further bandwidth if they take up the scheme, however BT is confident that the customer's connection speed won't be adversely affected by sharing with its customers. "We've built technology into the hub that gives the owner's traffic priority over the guest traffic," explains Hughes.

No extra hardware is needed for the service, and all business broadband hubs issued from July onwards will include the necessary firmware. For older models BT can update the software remotely.

BT currently has 170,000 Business Total Broadband users, and recently conducted a survey that shows only 7% offer Wi-Fi.