Share your wi-fi and get free wi-fi

British Telecom (BT) in partnership with FON are introducing a new plan for their internet customers. It's a 'scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' scheme and it could make the UK the most widely served free wi-fi access country in the world.

The idea is if you are a BT internet customer, they'll give you a special wireless router that allows part of your bandwidth to be available to anyone within range of your router (usually somewhere up to 100-200 feet). When someone nearby who also gets their internet service through BT needs a connection, they clamp on to your router and get a small portion of your bandwidth. This is intended to make it possible for people who surf the internet on their PDAs and cell phones to have internet access in many more places.

If you agree to share a part of your connection as a BT wireless customer, you get free access to everyone else's share (that is a BT customer) plus free BT wi-fi hotspot access anywhere in the world.

This totally flies in the face of the concept that my internet connection is mine and mine alone. But the fact is, most peoples' wireless connections are being wasted on one household. The new BT system - which by the way is much faster than many North American internet connections - never gives 'guest connections' too much bandwidth. In other words, people won't be able to sit out side your house and download bittorrents at high speed - they'd be better off going home
and getting their full speed from their own connection, or from a (now free) wi-fi hotspot at their favourite cafe.