Why I'm not signing up for BT Infinity

I got close to signing up for BT Infinity (moving from O2) as the deal seemed good and it includes BT OpenZone. However, I read somewhere (not on their site) that you automatically have to make your box available as a WiFi hot-spot for public use (by BT Fon users). It is apparently possible to disable this by going online and resetting everything (& presumably losing setting info) but you then lose your access to BT OpenZone. There is nowhere in the marketing/sign-up materials that mentions all this and I also searched the T&Cs (all the 4point text stuff) and couldn't find anything about it.

I find this a contemptuous approach to dealing with customers and demonstrates a worrying trend amongst large companies (I've just found out that LinkedIn, under the guise of providing more privacy control to the user, has automatically opted-in its 100 million users into the social advertising program without informing them of the change beyond a blog post).

The lack of transparency that BT has demonstrated will not make me want to use them again - and I wonder whether this merits a complaint to trading standards.

I thought opting in or out of BT Fon was very simple. There is even someone posted on here that he opts in when about to travel, and out when home-based.

As I understand it, on ADSLx it takes 500kbps maximum off your download speed when being used. Whether it takes more on an Infinity connection I don't know, but there's an awful lot more to play with.

Bear in mind that the people likely to utilise yours would be few and far between, unless you live on a High Street or similar.

I'm sure it is all covered somewhere on their site, as a couple of years ago I read all about it.

It also seems a bit rich that you should want to benefit from Openzone/FON connections but deny others the use of yours .

As Infinity is by far the best value FTTC product so far, you may be cutting off your nose to spite your face. I don't think FON is such a big deal at the providing end.

Don't think anyone has connected to our "hotspot" in the year and a bit since we joined.

Considering BT Openzone isn't exactly the cheapest thing in the world normally it's not exactly a big issue. You offer to give up a fraction of your bandwidth in exchange for free wifi which normally gets quite costly. Unless you live in the middle of a town or city I don't imagine anyone will ever be connected to you. And if they are, what exactly is the major problem?

For your info it's really easy to disable it from the Home Hub settings and it uses a different channel from your normal wi-fi.

As for transparency - it's made perfectly clear. Took me all of 20 seconds to browse to the appropriate page. See: http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProduc...

What is BT Fon?
To get your free Wi-Fi you need to be a member of BT Fon

Can't really be in simpler english than that.

You opt in or out here:-

http://www.btfon.com/

I don't think BT are acting unfairly at all. It's all made quite clear during the sign up process.

I was automatically opted out when my Infinity was installed a couple of months ago. Whether you opt in or not is up to you, but as Roberto says it seems a little off to want to make use of the bandwidth of all those opted in but not be willing to contribute yourself.....

Still - you use it (or not) as you wish should you go for BT in the end.

Hi Balham,

Full T&C's

As per the OP's, I dont believe that I have had a single person connect to my hub either!!

Edited by nelix01 (Fri 12-Aug-11 15:57:14)

On the BT Home page I just entered Openzone in the Search box. The item numbered "3" is questions and FAQs about that. A third of the way down that page is a link for more info on BT FON, and that has a link to the Opt-out method, which is far simpler than what you seem to have read somewhere.

I see little "contemptuous" about that, but contempt would certainly be what a complaint about it received from Trading Standards.

If you don't use the Home Hub then thats the end of being used as a Hotspot

Use your own router and then they cant do anything about it.

dry your eyes and shut the door on the way out Talk about going overboard, its easy to opt out in fact you do not even have to use their Homehub! As

I never used fon when I was with BT, in fact I made sure it was off, I don't agree with it being switch on as default now.

at the moment we have not got any fibre, but I have been told that BT is going to update our exchange either the end of this year or next year, I believe it when I see it. But I also will not be using BT infinity, because I don't like BT. i also doubt I will use any bibre service until the prices and usage comes to a level I think is good value.

My 4megabits does me ok,

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

I don't agree with it being switch on as default now.

I don't think it always is - I know what the Fon site says, but I rejoined BT (after many years) just a couple of months ago and my Fon was disabled by default.........

Using that sort of approach made me wonder if the OP was looking at the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 and worried that people would be able to come and make a cuppa while they're using his connection...

You either use OpenZone or not, if you want to benefit from the service then it's only fair you allow others the same access. If everyone opted out then there would be no Fon access available anywhere, which sort of defeats the object.

My FON was disabled in the Home Hub set-up screen by default too.

Ours was enabled by default last year but I disabled it as I don't use openzone

Following on from the OP and first reply, I'm alright Jack and if you use it, share it. If you dont use there is no personal moral reason to share your connection.

if you have it enabled andpeople connect to it, what happens if they use it for d/ling illeagal content, accessing sites that are against the law etc? are you held accountable as its coming from your ip or do bt have some system that it uses a seperate ip?

In reply to a post by fowler002:

if you have it enabled andpeople connect to it, what happens if they use it for d/ling illeagal content, accessing sites that are against the law etc? are you held accountable as its coming from your ip or do bt have some system that it uses a seperate ip?

BTFon uses a 10.**.**.** ip range and only a very small amount of your bandwidth. If you were to max out your connection , the person connected to Fon would lose their Fon connection anyway.

In reply to a post by fowler002:

if you have it enabled andpeople connect to it, what happens if they use it for d/ling illeagal content, accessing sites that are against the law etc? are you held accountable as its coming from your ip or do bt have some system that it uses a seperate ip?

Also to use FON they have to login with their BT username or create an account which they topup with their bank card

So it's linked to them.

Ontop of this as already stated they're given a different IP

In reply to a post by Garyilka:

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

I don't agree with it being switch on as default now.

I don't think it always is - I know what the Fon site says, but I rejoined BT (after many years) just a couple of months ago and my Fon was disabled by default.........

BT Fon was disabled by default when my HH2 arrived and was setup. I enabled it myself as it's a small chance anyone will ever need to use my connection & besides, it only uses a tiny percentage of overall speed.

I won't use the BT homehub because it leaves ports visible, because BT can dial into any time they want and because BT keep rebooting the router which messes up my music streaming...

UNderstand your concern - but depends on your requirements.

If you're after high data usage at a good price you'll struggle to find another option...

Personally I'm ok with leaving fon active & use of fon/openzone when out/about is useful.