Public wi-fi network on the way from Virgin?

[HDFootyMan]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...i-network.html

[qasdfdsaq]

Damn, they stole my idea.

[AndyCalling]

I recently noticed that BT are already providing public wifi access to its broadband customers as part of the standard package. I haven't looked in to all the details, but it sounds tempting. One of the first bolt-on extras an ISP has provided that's actually made me take notice.

If VM are going to do this as well I shall await it keenly. Only 5meg to BT's 8 but that may change, and BT's 8meg claim may be rather over inflated as ISP's tend towards such and VM may be quoting a planned average since their policy has changed in that area.

[qasdfdsaq]

You might be right on that one. BT's 8 meg claim was based on their main consumer service (over which it was provided) being an "Up to 8 meg" ADSL service at the time. VM's are going to be hooked into VM's multi-gigabit (theoretically capable of) HFC network (though that too gets slow in places) so they're looking at 5 meg per user limited by whatever they set their cable modem configs to and wireless bandwidth, rather than any number of users contending an <8mbps DSL line.

[CJNorfolk]

Its also worth thinking what this will be used for - I imagine it will in the main be personal use - so facebook, email etc via phones etc. for all of those uses 5M is plenty of bandwidth, and to protect such a network from saturation by setting limits before launch seems very sensible.

Even for business use its likely to be more than adequate when on the move as its unlikely to be the main source of broadband for an individual.

Until I moved here I had 5.5M at home and many locals had far far less, so this is a very good entry point if it all comes to fruition.

[Kymmy]

You can just by a FON router and share part of your network.. This then also gives you access to all the FON enabled routers..(which include all the BT opted in ones).. The routers start from £30

http://www.fon.com/en/

I suppose that now VM have their own HUBS they could do this.. and unlike BT's version the shared portion doesn't have to come out of the customers max speed

[jimpy0]

excuse my hignorance but if we get to the stage where we have open wi-fi for all and FON routers that "anybody" can connect to what will happen to the current purges on security, privacy and piracy ?

[Kymmy]

The connection isn't available to everyone but instead via an account (those that share a FON router (either FON or BT) have afree but unique username and password that they can use on other FON routers others may pay for an account) As such all FON traffic is kept seperate to the home traffic of the router they use even to an extent that a seperate wifi channel is used..

[Halcyon]

We have enough wireless networks all over the place. We don't need more!

[MovedGoalPosts]

If the home user was to see part of their own wireless being set aside for some public use, however that was in fact to be achieved, I think there would be many concerned subscribers out there. Many turn off wireless for security or even concerns over the tin foil hat needs of wireless radiation. But even if the use was limited somehow to the ISPs subscribers it would take a lot to convince a home owner that they have to publicly pay for any unknown person to hijack their connection (that is how they would see it) when we've for so long been banging on about security of wireless. I'd like to see how the likes of all these Davenport Lyons solicitors claims would work for alleged downloading if the bandwidth was legitimatelly opened up.

[Stuart]

Could this be why VM are suddenly moving toward providing only wireless hubs?

[TheDon]

Originally Posted by Rob

If the home user was to see part of their own wireless being set aside for some public use, however that was in fact to be achieved, I think there would be many concerned subscribers out there.

There are many opted in subscribers on BT that do exactly that though, so whilst there may be many concerned, there's equally a great deal that are happy to do so.

[AndyCalling]

I'm just adding a little note to remind people that VM are not talking about a FON style system but about installing separate VM routers in public places. Nothing to do with users' connections in theory, so long as they provide the extra bandwidth.

After all, I'd hate to find out that my area was oversubscribed because VM let every Tesco's customer from the 24 hour superstore nextdoor steal my street's bandwidth with their I-phones and whilst sitting in the cafe with their I-pads/netbooks silver-surfing away. This is a great idea if they install the extra capacity needed, otherwise they may as well be connecting through my router because it amounts to the same thing on a locally shared bandwidth connection like cable.

Especially as we now appear to have our traffic 'managed' as a result of users nearby abusing their connections by downloading torrents all day. It is no longer good enough to stay responsible ourselves, we now either have to police our neighbours' internet use or face a throttling ourselves as a punishment for not having good neighbours. Don't get me wrong, I'm in favour of traffic management, I just don't like taking the punishment for other users' indiscretions. Especially as the wifi wanders won't care about throttling as they'll be going home later and so dodge the punishment themselves.

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by Rob

If the home user was to see part of their own wireless being set aside for some public use, however that was in fact to be achieved,

I think it would work better on VM than on BT..

All the BT openzones use ch11, no idea what they use for private usage, so in effect it's two wifi channels so the only bandwidth the user misses is the bit that FON takes through the modem.. With VM (unless in a highly oversubbed area) there would be no bandwidth missing as the modem could in theory just create a new IP with it's own bandwidth as even on the highest bandwidths there's always some to spare..

I'd go for it especially as it means getting easily accessable wifi up and down the country

[qasdfdsaq]

I'm still waiting for 5G technology in the ~2020-2030 to be the ultimate convergence of 3G/4G WANs and 802.11 LANs, where high-speed internet access is available wirelessly wherever you are and you won't need to compromise between multiple different technologies.

Until then...