FON Boards

Hi, I mainly use my fon account to access BT Openzone access points in cafe neros. Recently when I have logged on it says somthing about the access point being premium and then not allowing me access. Has there been a change in the free BT access?

Probably you ran out of BT Openzone miniutes, according to the http://www.btfon.com faqs:

How does BT Openzone relate to BT FON?

BT Openzone provides public wi-fi broadband access at prime locations such as airports, restaurants and city centres. BT FON is an initiative between BT and FON that allows customers to share their broadband connection with each other and BT Total Broadband customers who are members of BT FON can access BT Openzone hotspots as well as BT FON home hubs with their BT FON allocated wi-fi minutes...

I already get 250 minutes per month BT Openzone access through BT Total Broadband, how will this change?

By joining BT FON you will get at least 250 minutes of access (Options 2 and 3 receive more) that can be used at BT Openzone sites and in thousands of new places around the world. When you have run out of these minutes, you can buy additional access.

I have run out of minutes, what can I do?

You can either upgrade to a higher BT Total Broadband Option and you will get your new allowance of minutes from the moment you upgrade. Option 2 gives you 350 minutes and Option 3 gives you unlimited* access. Alternatively, you can purchase additional minutes at http://www.btopenzone.com/buy or via the buy link on the landing page at a BT FON hotspot.

*(Option 3 customers get unlimited access in BT FON hotspots and 500 minutes per month in BT Openzone hotspots)

BUYING MORE BT FON ACCESS
If I run out of my monthly BT FON minutes, can I buy more minutes?

If you used all your BT FON minutes for the month, you can buy more minutes through the landing page at a BT FON hotspot. You can either buy Wi-Fi minutes by sending an SMS text message or buying them online with a credit card. These will be FON minutes which can be used at BT Fon hotspots. You can also buy BT Openzone minutes online through the landing page. These will also give you access to the BT FON network.
How much does it cost me to buy extra BT FON minutes?

Purchase BT FON minutes through SMS text messaging will cost £1.50 and this provides you with one hour of Internet access. You can purchase FON vouchers online with your credit card for £3 which will provide you with access for 24 hours. BT Openzone has a range of vouchers that you can buy based on your usage needs.

Can I once again point out this means Option 1 users have access to MY Fon Router when I have no access to their router, indeed they may not have wifi at all.

This is NOT what I signed up to fon for.

I signed up to Fon so if someone can have access to my wifi I can (if I'm in the area) use their wifi. Not allow anyone to use mine but not being able to use theirs as Fon made a quick buck by selling MY service to someone else.

I just managed to log on to a BT openzone hotspot which used to be "coming soon" last week (i.e. not a home broadband user) - I'm not a BT Broadband customer, just a regular FON user - I noticed when I tried to log on at the airport, there would be a charge equivalent to the same an alien would have been charged from one of my hotspots - however here, it just logged me in and allowed access to the internet.

Forgive Fon for being unclear about the intricate conditions neccessary to get something technically similar to their promises, and what your obligations are once you have joined. They're an up-and-coming startup blahblahblah and they've only been at this 3 years now blahblahblah so give them a break and some more time to perfect their marketing strategy!

Above all: keep buying Fon-branded merchandise (gotta collect 'em all), keep your La Foneras powered on 24-7 in perpetuity (per new TOS), and keep smiling! I like to practice in front of a mirror; saying "Fon" over and over again in the most adoring voice I can make.

And that is what FON was and is about. Any free Openzone minutes someone gets or buys are for the commercial BT Openzone Spots.

Sorry thats not the case. The key phrase is

By joining BT FON you will get at least 250 minutes of access (Options 2 and 3 receive more) that can be used at BT Openzone sites and in thousands of new places around the world. When you have run out of these minutes, you can buy additional access.

You need to understand the BT options, Option 1 is basic broadband, Option 2 and 3 adds in the home hub. Until recently only the top of the range option included the home hub, this means anyone on BT Option 1 can become a member of BTFon and use 250 minutes either on premium or Fon spots WITHOUT SHARING THEIR WIFI.
Because BT sold the HomeHub as a premium product many option 1 (and 2 and 3) users may have wifi through a "normal" router, ie Linksys, Belkin, Netgear, etc. They are unlikely to ever buy a homehub as they are more expensive than the branded variant. That means a lot of people are opting in to BT Fon, getting access to my Wifi and I get nothing in return. I won't even get money as a Bill as they'll use the BTFON supplied minutes.

Add to that thay BT have effectivly stopped the FGF promotion in the UK. It's more expensive to buy a La Fonera+ in the UK than anywhere else, in fact many branded routers are cheaper than it, why would anyone bother buying a La Fonera over anything else, you may as well get something faster with more ports in for less money.

I'm sure you can see my point, not only do I have little chance of making any money as a Bill (I never have but thats beside the point, now I'm unlikely to ever make anything is most of the potential customers get free access) but the fact that you can opt in to BTFon without sharing your own Wifi is NOT what Fon was about. What started as a nice idea has become about the money, I'm sure BT paid well but I'm not going to see anything for it but yet it's My Wifi Fon are selling.

gjchester, I share your concern and we'll have a meeting with BT to discuss and clarify all that has been explosed on this thread: power saving on the BT hub, Option 1 customers and BT Openzone minutes allowance.
As soon as I get more news I will inform you.

Thank you,

However I fear it's already too late, the deal is signed and the money paid.

Alternately, don't use BT for phone and broadband (other suppliers are much cheaper - PM me for details) and use what you have saved to buy an HSDPA modem from one of the mobile phone companies such as 3. This will mean you get a data allowance rather than minutes, its not unsecured and its comparable to the speed you get from OpenZone WiFi spots. This is what I do and I'm so glad I'm not a BT customer any more!

Ok, I know you won't be using WiFi to connect but hey, its your money and your Internet access

Sorry Not sure what you mean, I'm not on BT, my issue is BT users using my Wifi without having to share themselves.

Any update on this before I give up and reflash my router?

Is clear Fon users cannot use the BTOpenzone. I was in London last week in Stansted airport and try to log on the btopenzone, i selected Fonera user from the list and try to log in but my access was denied with no error message just a blank page every time, but in the URL was something about insufficient credit. So while I've been sharing my router for 2 years now i cant even access another spot for 5 min to check my emails, my router is on-line so I don't understand, can fonero users use BTopenzone or not, i'm unplugging the router now because is not worth it, i share my Internet free bu i have to pay for access.

Fon users can access non-premium BT Openzone spots. We're working with BT to give access to premium BT Openzone spots, but for the moment, Foneros can access BTFON and non premium BT Openzone spots.

Thanks for responding, and somewhat clearing things up. This may sound like a stupid question, but how does one know the difference between a Premium BT OpenZone and a BT OpenZone that Foneras can access?

Its not a stupid question at all and exposes the mess that BT have created in this area

the only definitive way is to access the landing page:
- if it looks similar to the one you would access on your own uk fonera (predominantly light blue / green/purple) then its a fon compatible enabled hub
- it its primarly a darker red with the openzone logo all over it its a premium openzone hotspot for which you will have to pay

the "public" signals (ignoring myplace etc) put out by the various devices are:

uk fonera+
- BTFON

older bt hub
- BTOpenzone

newer bt hub (puts out 2 signals)
- BTOpenzone
- BTFON

the problem is the older hubs (which are the largest proportion unfortunately)
if you are in a residential area and you see BTOpenzone then its a fair bet that its really a fon
if you are in an airport or town centre then its likely to be a premium openzone hotspot
(if you have a look at the map on the btfon page rather than the fon one you can see the
proportion of blue fon to red openzone dots and their general locations)

in short its a mess!!

No kidding, I'm so confused!

My Fonera is running OpenWRT at the moment, because I've been playing about hacking it to bits, for fun. I plan on getting a Fonera 2.0g if I can get my hands on one. I'd like to keep one running, as I think the idea behind Fon is great, but it's a shame BT don't agree.

The Fon motto is “you share a little wifi at home and roam the world for free”, if BT is to partner with Fon (or whatever the arrangement is) then they should stick to this. Not allowing Foneros access to 'Premium' BT OpenZone is morally wrong imo.

It would appear BT made a bad mistake thinking they could use fon to extend/bolster their unsuccessful openzone networks
I personally consider attempting to pass off fon as openzone is a deception because there is every chance that someone can spend money on a subscription expecting a commercial level of service only to have the fonspot owner switch the thing off when she/he goes to bed (i pretty much disagree selling services over any fon router for that reason)
The ongoing inability to articulate that openzone minutes are not required to access fon networks (provided thir customer's hub is sharing), the partial/patchy roll out of dual (BTFON/BTOpenzone) SSIDS on bt hubs and continued inability to adequately describe the service is just more evidence of BT corporate chaos - a classic symptom of ill informed marketing idiots bolstered by managerial incompetence methinks

Conversely bt's activities (particularly the recent policy of default opt in) means there are many more UK fonspots available than would otherwise be the case and the l2tp tunnel thing does remove the worry of plod knocking on your door if an alien decides to upload something illegal over your connection.

For the record i am running a fonera+ with native UK firmware on a non BT connection which does at least give me net access via the fon enabled bt hubs and very infrequently via a genuine fonera

I've had my FON router now for about 2 years solid running with just a couple folks ever jumping on it. None the less, still on. I've cruised through these forums before, but never registered. Now I got reason to.

I recently went to London in November this year and I don't care where I was (mall, hotel, cafe, Starbucks, I would see select your partner/provider and there would be FON, I would select it and next thing you know, a payment page comes up after logging in. So I agree, what the hell is the purpose of doing our part by leaving on the Router, but FON Partners find a way to scam us when we do try to get on the internet during travels? Premium and non Premium my *$$.

So in essence, what BT is doing, is saying ok FONEROS if your in a city or anywhere else where Travelers would most likely go, your gonna pay, but if you go into a residential area where the residents who are sharing FON are, you have a better chance at using the net for free???

Pretty much the case

If BT(or a business partner of BT) installed the hotspot then its premium openzone and you only get the £20 allowance that was bundled with the fonera+
If a user like you or me installed a fon (either a fonera or a bt homehub) then you can use it for free provide you are sharing

The irregularity here is not that openzone is commercial and chargeable but that commercial openzone users can access the net through your non bt connected fonspot
(you can read the rest of this thread to understand the mess/confusion the BT marketing droids have made by calling homehub fon SSID BTOpenzone)

Your choices are:
1) decide the situation is unacceptable and reflash your fonera for some other use
2) accept that the chances of a commercial openzone user actually accessing your fonera is bordering on nil and that the BT hub initiative at least means there is some chance of finding a fon signal

Personally im far more dismayed that people can pratt about using my bandwidth on google/gmail/youtube without registering, sharing or paying a bean to anyone!