BT Openzone

[#1]

I have been waiting for an announcement of free Openzone minutes as an add on to BBMY but absolute zilch despite a hint that it would happen in 2007.  What's going on?

[#2]

I wish something would be said about this too, I often wish to take advantage of Openzone hotspots.
Included Openzone credit was promised months ago, nothing has been said since, whats going on Plusnet?

[#3]

I've not heard anything about this TBH. Ian's probably the best person to ask but he's left the building now.
Give me a prod next week and I'll ask about.

[#4]

It seems PlusNet have rather forgotten about the 'YW' in 'BBYW', although admittedly it's not as if wireless minutes are part of the core product. For people looking for an alternative, The Cloud have some respectable 'unlimited' deals.

[#5]

Be3G thanks for that, the cloud looks far more interesting than any other service right now!!!

[#6]

I agree that the Wifi access is not part of the core product but it was announced as a potential free add-on linked with BT products.  I am an occasional user of hot spots and a modest number of minutes would be very useful.
The Cloud does look interesting and if push comes to shove I might have to take out a monthly with them but I would prefer to do it through Plusnet if possible. 

[#7]

I now find that Plusnet Wireless Broadband is currently not available to Force9 and Free-Online customers so I cannot secure a paid deal with my 'home' provider even if I want to (and I do). 

[#8]

Remember that PlusNets agreement with BT Openzone only gives access to BT's own hotspots, not their partners, which limits the coverage.
The cloud looks great if you surf the web in the pub!!
If you want this for regular use, have you considered a 3G data service from one of the mobile operators;
Three
Vodafone
T-mobile
Its never going to set the world on fire for browsing speed, but its great for e-mail on the run. As it works where you are, not making you got to the pub to collect your e-mails.
Chilly

[#9]

I'm sure I've posted about this once before, but I can't find it now. Anyway, you've almost answered the Wifi questions yourself as it happens.
In short, there are two sorts of Openzone access we could offer. One, from BT wholesale (which we have now) provides access to just Openzone hotspots, and frankly, is a somewhat limited product as a result.
The other option is that we could offer the retail version of Openzone, which includes access to The Cloud and some other roaming partners. That is a very compelling product, and our focus in the products team has been on securing access to that in order to replace what we have now. Once we have done that, we should be able to offer it to all of our customers and that will add some real value for people.
The problem is that these discussions never seem to be as quick moving as one would like, and we are still in the process of negotiating this change with BT. It is pretty complicated for reasons I won't go into in too much detail here. 
Right now, we are looking at all of our options for 2008 and prioritising them appropriately. We have loads of things we want to do to make BBYW the flexible and modular product it was designed to be, and we certainly accept that circumstances in 2007 meant we didn't deliver nearly as much in this regard as we had hoped. We also have plenty of other things to think about, like business products and upgrades to existing offerings (Hosting for example).
Once we've finished our prioritisation process, had all the debates internally (And with PUG and others!), we'll publish our plans for 2008 document on the website and work our very hardest to finish all of the good work we started in 2007.
Ian

[#10]

Great thanks for an informative reply, sounds exciting, it's really the sort of thing ISP's have to start offering. While I'm not getting my hopes too high this is quite exciting.
Thanks again for the info.

[#11]

I agree with davepye - Ian's reply is very informative and hopeful.  I look forward to positive developments in 2008.