[Wolves] BTfon - Can anyone make any sense of this announcement?

[Andy Wootton]

Kevanf1 wrote:
> On 14/10/2007, Andrew Lewis <andrew at monkeysailor.co.uk> wrote:
>   
>> Andy Wootton wrote:
>>     
>>> http://www.btfon.com/
>>>
>>> BT! WTF?
>>>       
>> Ah, yes - I saw this the other day:
>>
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7027871.stm
>>
>> spline
>>     
>
> Not having read the BBC report my personal take on it is.... a good
> publicity stunt for BT.  It ain't 'free wifi' because you will be
> obliged to share your home connection with anybody who is in range.
> This would of course reduce your current available bandwidth by a
> varying amount.  I suppose it all depends on whether you are willing
> to sacrifice home connection speed with being able to access wherever
> this wifi is enabled.  It'll only grow (this particular wifi network)
> if enough people sign up and join.
>
> I didn't spot any mention of how secure this sharing of bandwidth will be.
>   

I'd be really excited about this if it was anyone but BT. Surely free, 
wide-spread metropolitan networks with VOIP would kill them. Are they 
trying to stop anyone else starting up a service by establishing a new 
monopoly that they can control or am I missing something?

Technically it looks good. Separate channels for personal encrypted 
traffic and an open, unencrypted link. I guess they could channel limit.
No, it isn't free but it's just a bandwidth exchange with other 
community members. If other ISPs get involved too then it could be great 
but if only BT is in the game then I'm worried.