Hotspots Add to Customer Experience as Mobile Broadband Grows

According to leading industry commentators EITO (European Information Technology Observatory), mobile data services are booming - and the UK is leading the way in Europe with a market that's growing at an above average rate.

EITO predict a 9.8% growth in 2009 to reach a total value of €7.1 billion. Soaring sales of netbook PCs - often bundled with a mobile broadband service - are a driving force behind the upward trend. So too are the many appealing new applications that appear virtually daily in the UK marketplace including social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

For O2, a wi-fi solution from BT is helping to assure an optimum experience for their fast-growing numbers of mobile broadband customers when they are out and about.

Through a new deal with BT announced last month, O2 is now capitalising on BT Openzone - the national network of wi-fi hotspots - to give its customers fast and easy online access at an extra 3500 locations. Many are at prime sites where large numbers of people are likely to want to work or be in touch while in transit, ranging from railway stations, airport lounges and motorway service stations to high street coffee shops such as Caffè Nero and Starbucks.

Dave Keegan, O2's Head of Business Products, comments: "We want our customers to be not just better connected but to have the best connection wherever they are. Using BT Openzone means we can give them the same high-quality higher speed broadband experience when they are out as they get when they are at home or in the office."

As a key element of the BT Openzone initiative, O2 has also upgraded the Connection Manager software that goes with every O2  mobile broadband package. Dave continues: "This means that our customers can now simply sit down with their laptop and get automatically logged on at any BT Openzone. There's no manual registration needed."