BT Group, formerly British Telecommunications, plans to persuade its British customers to turn their home wireless “hubs” into public hotspots. Succeeding in this plan, BT will be able to compete with the mobile phones operators to deliver Internet services on the go.

There are around 10,000 to 11,000 hotspots in the country. Increasing the number for a nation-wide network would boost the sales for BT’s Fusion phone that supports fixed-line telephony, mobile networks and of course supports wireless connections. For the customers will be great benefits as they will make cheaper calls over the Wi-Fi connection. Also, BT’s Broadband costumers who would participate at the project will have free access to the network across the country.

“It won’t take over overnight, but over time wi-fi will chip away at the mobile network,” said Gavin Patterson, BT’s managing director for consumer operations.

Already important investors like Google and Skype expressed their intention to collaborate for the project. Although BT’s plan seems very good, I tend to think it will be developed only in the big cities, at least in the next five years. First of all, not everybody will share the connection (security issues, connection speed problems etc.). Secondly, the costs to maintain such an infrastructure are too big. I am not a pessimist, but I am a little reserved about its success.

via Yahoo News

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