This has to be a first.  BT is asking all of its UK customers to share their WiFi connection using special routers from Spanish company, FON, that enable users to “securely” share their Internet connection with complete strangers.  Those that choose to do so receive access to any other FON hotspot in the world.  BT has partnered with FON to bring the idea to the UK.

Ars Technica reports that BT is encouraging its some three million subscribers to acquire a FON router or enable the functionality through BT and share their Internet access.  The router provides two access points, a “secure” connection for the owner and a bandwidth limited “public” connection, this prevents anyone accessing the public side from disrupting the owner’s connection.

FON is also working on bringing the same model to the US through Time Warner Cable, I think Comcast would have been a better choice but maybe that’s just me.

Right now there are about 190,000 FON hotspots across the world but the company has not said how many more it hopes to introduce with the new programs.

BT eventually hopes that every street in Britain is blanketed in a WiFi connection.  Now, we’ll see if WiFi really does cause cancer.

It still has to be shown that FON’s routers really do protect the user’s private connection, as any network is hackable, it could be problematic but in general, should be safe enough.

WiFi does have a limited range and police have been known to crack down on people sitting on the street in their car with a computer, “but, officer, it’s a public connection, it’s FON!”

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Entry was posted on Saturday, October 6th, 2007 at 2:38 pm under Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.
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