BT and UK Wireless Cities

psionandy · 02-16-07, 04:00 PM

Once upon a time BT (that's British Telecom and not Bluetooth) were just providers of phones, who would take weeks to reconnect a single phoneline.

Now in just a few months they are planning to deploy city based wireless networks.
In 2006 they announced that Birmingham, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Cardiff and Westminster would be done, and now they have added Sheffield, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Bristol and Glasgow

The networks should be up (at least in their first phase) by Easter. And as well as the usual Broadband services for residents and businesses there will also be local authority based services for council workers.

'Many local authorities are keen to pursue the real benefits to the council, businesses and citizens that a large wireless broadband network can bring,' said Steve Andrews, BT chief, Mobility and Convergence. 'A number of local authorities are already showing they can improve productivity for their mobile workers, like environmental health officers, who would be able to take action quickly and efficiently away from the office.'

As with BT, there isn't any cost information about how much it will cost private users.. but if it wasn't there we couldn't use it.

Source: PC Pro

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Kulnet · 02-16-07, 05:18 PM

Thanks for the interesting insight.

RICOUK · 02-17-07, 03:03 PM

Sounds good, now all we need is country wide wifi, then I would pay a monthly fee at pretty much any (reasonable:D) cost. If you think about it, it would be your mobile phone (Skype, your internet, your texting (IM), and anything else. You could also serve your music collection from home and access it anywhere in the country, which would be brilliant. If only wifi was actually fast!!

Jogga · 02-18-07, 03:16 AM

BT already supply wireless broadband in a package called BT Openzone. The nominal cost is £5.87 per month and is very handy on the road: I use it in McDonalds' and similar restaurants when I stop for coffee.