BT FON ha superado los 100.000 usuarios en el Reino Unido

Tengo el gusto de anunciar que BT FON, la comunidad WiFi que hemos creado junto a nuestros socios de BT, ha superado los 100.000 miembros en el Reino Unido y la gran mayoría ya tiene Fon instalado en los routers que les puso BT cuando activaron su servicio de banda ancha. Este gran crecimiento en pocos meses demuestra lo bueno que puede ser Fon para una teleco que compite ferozmente en el mercado de la banda ancha. Inclusive una «ex Telefónica». Para BT es un gran gancho poder decir que viene con Fon pre instalado y que sus clientes contratan banda ancha en su casa y lo tienen por todo el Reino Unido y el mundo y los de su competencia no. Ultimamente, Fon está creciendo especialmente rápido en los países que tiene acuerdo con los operadores como el Reino Unido, Francia con Neuf o el más reciente firmado con Comstar en Rusia y aún no implementado. Y tenemos unos 4 grandes acuerdos más en negociación ahora mismo.

Además, otro tema importante del anuncio que hicimos conjuntamente con BT esta mañana es que vamos a lanzar una Fonera especial para el Reino Unido –que en Fon llamamos la BTFonera– pero que se llamará directamente la Fonera para que también puedan ser foneros los clientes de los competidores de BT. El atractivo de esta fonera será especialmente alto en el Reino Unido porque el que se compre la Fonera podrá conectarse a más de 100.000 puntos en su país, además del resto de los puntos fon por el planeta.

Esperamos que con tantas pruebas de que Fon acelera la venta de la banda ancha y reduce la pérdida de clientes que dejan su servicio conectado aunque viajan muchos tendremos un acuerdo finalmente con un operador español y de otros países que hablen español (jopé, dije español y no castellano, a ver si me machacan los comentaristas del post anterior).

A continuación comparto con vosotros el comunicado de prensa de BT (en inglés)

BT today announced that it has attracted over 100,000 members in the UK to BT FON, the world’s largest Wi-Fi community, where members share their broadband connection to establish a network of wireless hotspots. BT has also been recognised for its success with the BT FON community project, launched with its partner Fon, by being named the most Innovative Wireless Broadband Company by the 2008 Wireless Broadband Innovation Awards.

Since the launch of BT FON in October last year, 100,000 BT Total Broadband customers have come together to join the BT FON community, creating thousands of new Wi-Fi hotspots up and down the country.

In addition to the BT FON network in the UK, BT Total Broadband customers that join the BT FON community can access 3,000 BT Openzone hotspots at locations such as hotels, airports and railway stations, BT’s 13 UK wireless cities, and Fon’s global network of 190,000 hotspots. This provides BT Total Broadband customers with unrivalled Wi-Fi coverage across the UK and the rest of the world, allowing even more customers to experience the benefits of broadband both at home and when out and about.

Every BT customer that joins the BT FON community agrees to share a small portion of their home broadband connection, by opening up a separate, secure channel on their wireless router – the BT Home Hub. They are then able to use, free of charge, the BT FON hotspots of other members, BT Openzone hotspots, BT’s UK wireless cities, and Fon hotspots around the world.

Jon Hurry, Director Internet Services, Consumer, said: “It’s great to see BT Total Broadband customers joining forces to set up a people’s Wi-Fi network across the UK. BT has been instrumental in creating Broadband Britain, and we have built on that by calling upon entire communities to come together to create a Wi-Fi network that covers the country, driven entirely by local broadband users.

“We’ve already built extensive Wi-Fi coverage across the UK with BT Openzone and 13 Wireless Cities, but with more people signing up to BT FON everyday, Wi-Fi coverage in the UK is set to get better and better.”

Customers that sign up to BT Total Broadband Anywhere automatically join the BT FON community. Broadband Anywhere is the new all-inclusive broadband package from BT which offers customers a free, internet enabled Smartphone – the BT ToGo – for just £5 more per month than the price of BT Total Broadband Option 3. Today’s announcement means that Broadband Anywhere customers can enjoy unlimited access at even more wireless hotspots around the UK, allowing them to surf the web, email, make calls and text, both at home and out and about.

BT Total Broadband customers that are interested in joining the BT FON community can visit www.bt.com/btfon for more information about how to sign up. Customers can also visit the website to obtain a view of their local BT FON network. By simply entering a postcode, they can find the nearest BT FON or BT Openzone hotspots near to their home and to other places of interest. To encourage other people in their area to join the BT FON community and give their local Wi-Fi network an extra boost, promotional materials such as posters are also available to members to download from the website.

Customers who want to connect to broadband via BT FON while abroad can also visit the website to find Fon hotspots in other countries around the world.

From the summer, non-BT Total Broadband customers in the UK will also be able to join the BT FON community by purchasing FON’s Wi-Fi router, La Fonera.