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UK: Free Cloud access - how to use it?

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paulobrad

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 30, 2007
151
0
UK
So 6 days to go...

I just wondered if anyone knows the plan for how we will be able to connect to the cloud hotspots for free?

Will we need a cloud account and register the phone with it somehow or will there be something built in to the phone that just tells the cloud access point "I'm an iPhone - give me some internet"?
 
paulobrad said:
So 6 days to go...

I just wondered if anyone knows the plan for how we will be able to connect to the cloud hotspots for free?

Will we need a cloud account and register the phone with it somehow or will there be something built in to the phone that just tells the cloud access point "I'm an iPhone - give me some internet"?
Click to expand...

Apparently it does it by MAC address so just connect to the network and your away...no passwords or logins...can't wait to give it a go :D
 
I think I'm right in saying that Cloud access includes all BT Openzone hot spots. Should mean great coverage in the City of London (claimed 90%!)... and City of Westminster now has good coverage too apparently.

Look for BT Payphones... lots of them are hotspots (in Central London at least).
 
I guess when you activate your phone with O2 they with supply the cloud with your MAC address for the time you have a contract with them. This way it stops someone just buying an iPhone unlocking it and getting free cloud access.
 
paulo999 said:
I think I'm right in saying that Cloud access includes all BT Openzone hot spots. Should mean great coverage in the City of London (claimed 90%!)... and City of Westminster now has good coverage too apparently.

Look for BT Payphones... lots of them are hotspots (in Central London at least).
Click to expand...

Im afraid this isnt this case, although it seems to be that bt openzone users get access to Cloud hotspots, but not vice versa.

Unless you've got a link that says different?....
 
smythey said:
Im afraid this isnt this case, although it seems to be that bt openzone users get access to Cloud hotspots, but not vice versa.

Unless you've got a link that says different?....
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree. Basically BT say some of "their" openzone hot spots are "operated" by cloud. What they really mean is they are cloud hotspots but BT pay them to let their customers connect.

So most (if not all?) cloud hotspots can be used by openzone customers but pure openzone hotspots only used by BT openzone people.

However., heard of BT Fon? If you have BT broadband with a home hub you can sign up and it makes your home hub into an openzone hotspot so your neighbours can (securely) access your internet. In return they give you unlimited access to other home hubs doing the same thing and 500 mins on normal Openzone hotspots. http://www.btfon.com
 
when you search on the cloud website for hotspots it comes up with bt openzone hotspots. This would indicate to me that you do get access to them.
 
00hkelly said:
when you search on the cloud website for hotspots it comes up with bt openzone hotspots. This would indicate to me that you do get access to them.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? On the openzone site it clearly shows ones that are "Cloud" operated but can't see an equivalent on the Cloud site. Any Openzone spots that are exclusively openzone don't appear in my search on the cloud site?

Perhaps it's just the sites around where I live - got an example?
 
paulobrad said:
Yeah, I agree. Basically BT say some of "their" openzone hot spots are "operated" by cloud. What they really mean is they are cloud hotspots but BT pay them to let their customers connect.

So most (if not all?) cloud hotspots can be used by openzone customers but pure openzone hotspots only used by BT openzone people.

However., heard of BT Fon? If you have BT broadband with a home hub you can sign up and it makes your home hub into an openzone hotspot so your neighbours can (securely) access your internet. In return they give you unlimited access to other home hubs doing the same thing and 500 mins on normal Openzone hotspots. http://www.btfon.com
Click to expand...

Ah yes... you are right, I remember now.

The Fon thing is cool... I might join next year, although not via BT broadband.
 
I would love to beleive that this is the case, but I think if cloud users could get access to BT Openzone hotspots, they would make this explicit somewhere on their site, as it would be a big selling point (Approx doubling the amount of hotspots available).

I cant see anywhere on the cloud website (including the knowledge base) where it says that BT Openzone hotspots can be used.

Compare this to to the BT Openzone site, which states this clearly.
 
mine is unlocked too i jus signed up to cloud the other day paying £6.99 fo runlimited usage. i ofund that the first time i spotted a cloud point it wouldnt let me access without logging in but since i registered my mac add and pying £6.99 it let me on without logging in so its kinda groovy but i onl found one spot so far lol:rolleyes:
 
paulobrad said:
However., heard of BT Fon? If you have BT broadband with a home hub you can sign up and it makes your home hub into an openzone hotspot so your neighbours can (securely) access your internet. In return they give you unlimited access to other home hubs doing the same thing and 500 mins on normal Openzone hotspots. http://www.btfon.com
Click to expand...

I have just opted in to BT FON via my BT Total Broadband account.

I'm currently in Spain too so I am very interested to see whether I'll be able to connect at any point, either on my mac during my trip from Spain to London to buy my iPhone, or on my iPhone as I travel home to Bristol. I'd like to think it will be wifi-tastic but I seriously doubt it!

Tell me, where did you see the 500 mins limit on OpenZone hotspots? When I opted in it said 'unlimited', but didn't specificy either way as to whether this was FON only of Openzone too. Nothing mentioned 500min, that's all I know. And also, do you mean per month, or total?

Thanks :)
 
mudaudio said:
I have just opted in to BT FON via my BT Total Broadband account.

I'm currently in Spain too so I am very interested to see whether I'll be able to connect at any point, either on my mac during my trip from Spain to London to buy my iPhone, or on my iPhone as I travel home to Bristol. I'd like to think it will be wifi-tastic but I seriously doubt it!

Tell me, where did you see the 500 mins limit on OpenZone hotspots? When I opted in it said 'unlimited', but didn't specificy either way as to whether this was FON only of Openzone too. Nothing mentioned 500min, that's all I know. And also, do you mean per month, or total?

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

I have heard that the BT Fon system doesn't work with the iPod touch due to issues with authentication to the BT Fon system.

So you authenticate ok and then when you try to request a url you just get redirected to the authentication page again!

Anyone with an iPod Touch want to test this out?

I opted in to BT Fon this week for the very reason of using it to increase the number of WiFi hotspots I could use to connect to with my iPhone come Friday.
 
mudaudio said:
Tell me, where did you see the 500 mins limit on OpenZone hotspots? When I opted in it said 'unlimited', but didn't specificy either way as to whether this was FON only of Openzone too. Nothing mentioned 500min, that's all I know. And also, do you mean per month, or total?

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

This is from the FAQs when you log into BT Fon:

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 gets 350 minutes and Option 3 gets unlimited* access. If you don't want to change option you can purchase additional minutes by clicking here http://www.btopenzone.com/buy

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

I am actually a BT employee so luckily I get free Broadband Option 3 (the most expensive one anyway). So I know I get 500 Openzone and Unlimited Fon, looks like Option 2 people get 350 Fon minutes but not sure about Openzone.
 
Maybe this will get fixed in the latest firmware release that is rumored to ship with the new iPhones on Friday?

I sure hope so.
 
the cloud website certainly lists BT payphones as Cloud hotspots. I just did a 0.5 mile search around soho and it listed about 6 or 7 payphones.
 
the annoying thing is, if you look on the bt openzone website it lists these spots as not owned by bt openzone.
I really hope they get some kind of reciprocal arrangement going. Esp now their user base is going to be a lot larger with all the iphones and the increased revenue from their deal with O2, maybe openzone will open the doors.
 
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