Yesterday, the BBC published a report on The Myth of Free Wi-Fi, which addressed the challenges many consumers have accessing genuinely free Wi-Fi hotspots.
The BBC is right to highlight the confused and misleading practice in the UK. We also recognise these frustrations and know that Wi-Fi is becoming increasingly important to our customers. Rightly, they are disappointed when it is charged for or simply doesn’t work.
This why we launched our market-changing public Wi-Fi platform, O2 Wifi, to the UK earlier this year – making us the first mobile provider to offer the public Wi-Fi that is genuinely free, simple, fast and secure. Our premium hotspots are managed through partnerships with key venue owners and are open for all customers to access for free, no matter which mobile or broadband provider they are with.
Access to the hotspots is through a simple one-time only sign-up process, providing seamless connectivity to a high quality network of premium public hotspots, as opposed to using residential connections with limited bandwidth. Our aim is to create a scaled Wi-Fi platform that will be at least double the number of premium hotspots currently offered by BT Openzone and The Cloud combined by 2013.
We have already successfully rolled out hotspots in our retail and office estate and are now starting the rollout into non O2 venues which will rapidly build our footprint through the rest of the year.
We’re really excited about O2 Wifi and look forward to keeping you updated on further announcements via this blog soon.
Tell us where you’d like to see free and open Wi-Fi…..
press enquiries
press enquiries