BT + FON = more Skype
By
Peter Parkes on October 10, 2007 in Skype tips and tricks.
Martin Varsavsky from FON talks about the expansion of their network of FON hotspots by 3 million in one fell swoop, thanks to a hookup with BT. Quite what he’s doing wandering round the Tate Modern I’m not sure, though perhaps it’s to do with BT’s sponsorship deal there.
As the FON blog says, BT Broadband users can now opt in to make their broadband wireless hub a FON hotspot and get free Wi-fi at other FON hotspots in return:
Every person in the UK who agrees to share a small portion of their home broadband connection will be able to share the connection of any other member. Anyone joining in will be able to use those FON hotspots across the world and all the new BT FON hotspots free of charge.
It's been interesting to see how the blogosphere has reacted to the announcement. Connected Internet raises questions about bandwidth allocation:
[BT] didn’t give any details of how much bandwidth each BT Fon customer will be asked to share. It will probably be enough for BT Fon users to be able to surf the net, read emails, watch YouTube videos etc but not enough for anyone who wants to sit outside their neighbours house and download a torrent.
and Martyn Davis at Blognation UK talks about the future:
On a broader canvas, this is an interesting experiment in picocell technology. As wireless Internet speeds get faster in the future, your proximity to the base station will define what performance you get to the Internet. This means that high speed wireless technologies like WiMax and 3G HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) will not give good coverage if service providers just build a handful of giant towers; it will be rather important to have picocells, or small capacity base stations that are available in large numbers. Actually, what could be a better approach then turning WiFi-equipped homes and businesses into a picocell network?
Of course, more Wi-fi can only be good news for Skype users. In fact, the SMC wifi phone will connect straight in to a FON hotspot, so perhaps it won’t be long before you can avoid carrying a laptop altogether.
