BT Reaches 3.5m Wi-Fi Hotspot Milestone

BT says that it now has more than 3.5 million public Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

The phone and broadband provider made the announcement while also launching a new BT FON app for BlackBerry.

Broadband Everywhere

The company says that it has 380,000 hotspots in London, 25,000 in Birmingham and Leeds, 20,000 in Manchester, Edinburgh and Sheffield, and more than 11,000 in Liverpool, Brighton, Bristol and Cardiff.

BT had previously announced that it had close to 320,000 hotspots in Scotland and nearly 170,000 in Wales.

“Millions of BT broadband customers are enjoying free access to one of the biggest Wi-Fi networks in the world,” said BT’s consumer managing director John Petter.

The hotspots are currently free to BT’s six million home and business broadband subscribers and the new BlackBerry App will provide users with easier hotspot login. BT has released apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices which locate and connect customers to their nearest BT hotspot.

BT says that it recognises that such devices are now overtaking laptops and PCs as the Wi-Fi device of choice. “Our free apps for the Apple, Android and now Blackberry devices make getting online even easier and have already proved a huge hit with over 900,000 downloads,” commented Petter.

BT’s Wi-Fi network has expanded to cover 100 London pubs after it agreed a deal with brewer Heineken and has even found its way underground after a hotspot was installed at Charing Cross tube station as part of a subterranean Wi-Fi trial.