BT Brings Wireless Broadband Services to Customers in 12 UK Cities

By Johanne Torres

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

In order for BT’s customers to realize the full potential of new applications and devices recently launched by the operator, it has arranged to build the first phase of 12 “Wireless Cities”—a WiFi hotspot project, which the company plans to complete in a month’s period.

    

BT will make this service available today in five new Wireless City deployments: Sheffield, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Bristol, and Glasgow. The cities join Birmingham, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Cardiff and Westminster.

    

The networks offer wireless, high-speed broadband service, now available for customers in city center locations.

    

The 12 Wireless Cities project will enable local authorities, businesses and citizens to access wireless broadband available at home or in the office; as well as work with BT to develop new mobile services for citizens to provide information such as available parking spaces and cinema listings.

    

“We are delighted that we have met our ambitious target early, but this is just the beginning,” commented BT's chief, Mobility and Convergence (News - Alert) Steve Andrews, in a statement released on Tuesday.  “Other networks are already being built. Many local authorities are keen to pursue the real benefits to the council, businesses and citizens that a large wireless broadband network can bring.”

    

“Across the UK, almost every major city will have a large area covered by BT Openzone wireless broadband access points, which means customers can do anything, anytime, anywhere. And BT is committed to working with local authorities to develop the applications that run over the network, so that councils, businesses and citizens can really benefit from the network and will really use it,” he concluded.

 

BT also announced this week that its customers will now be able to benefit from the power of mobility when using VoIP services thanks to the operator's new offering—Windows Mobile 6-powered smartphones from HTC.

 

The new devices will receive support from BT's WiFi (News - Alert) Fusion mobile service—a converged fixed-mobile phone service, as well as the home and office "Hub" that allows customers to create their own wireless network. This will be the first devices of this kind that BT makes available for its customers. Up to this point, the operator had only offered non-mobile VoIP-enabled phones as part of its Fusion service.