I just connected to my own routers FON (sitting about 2 metres away from me) and on speedtest.net got 9/9.and on TBB speedtest it was 9/3.5. The same speedtests when connected normally for speedtest.net is 147/30 and TBB 146/29.

So, it looks like your test at 8.5/8.5 is probably pretty much top whack for BT FON allowed speeds.

Have just run a quick test here (Speedtest.net). If needed I use a WAP that is not the one offering guest or BTWiFi and did not want to have to find the passcodes for it so that is not shown.

Guest 17.52 Down 14.55 Up
BT WiFi 17.45 Down 14.55 Up


Not too scientific as my wife is teaching on a Zoom session with a connection which will be taking some upstream but this did not affect her link.
Normal upstream is about 17Mbps.

I will try again later when she is not working to see how much more is used - if available

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

BT help page here: https://www.bt.com/help/broadband/how-do-i-opt-out-o...

The web page is out of date. I've found no way to turn it off since the last update.

I had previously turned it off twice before in previous years. But the option just isn't there. The only option that is there is the page to sign up to Fon as a non-BT person.

So I'm stuck with it on.

I've noticed that I seem to have a higher through-put with Fon on.

Interesting, perhaps they had a quiet change of policy to not allow people to opt out.

In reply to a post by michaelh:

In reply to a post by MHC:

And when there is no mobile coverage and you are not in a restaurant ... then what?

Then I get on with normal life. I don't need to be glued to Facebook or whatever every minute of the day and night.

Good answer.

I was with BT years ago and I turned off fon as well. I found that it was not that useful as the ones I could pick up in town was such a low signal it could not be used.
Anyway, even our city centre have some sort of public Wi-Fi.

I find the domestic BT wi-fi hotspots incredibly useful when parked up in the villages round here where the mobile coverage is iffy. Just park up by the blind wall of the donor house so you are not intimidating the householder through their windows.

I also find BT-Wifi very useful when out and about.

Not everybody has lots of data on their mobile phone contracts, or indeed any contract at all. I can't imagine why you would want to turn it off, under most circumstances, it's one of the reasons I went back to BT.

I did read of one chap who was at the side of a campsite, and had people jumping his garden wall to use the wifi - but I think I would have found other ways to deter that!

As said before, it doesn't impact on household wifi as it only utilises unused bandwidth. If you max out the home broadband connection, BT-Wifi goes dead.

When connected, it seems to max out at 9Mb up/down for me.

In reply to a post by gomezz:

I find the domestic BT wi-fi hotspots incredibly useful when parked up in the villages round here where the mobile coverage is iffy. Just park up by the blind wall of the donor house so you are not intimidating the householder through their windows.

i could never really get a decent signal, but this was over 10 years ago if not more, but I doubt things have changed much, around here. i can understand for some people it may be useful

In reply to a post by sparky_paul:

I also find BT-Wifi very useful when out and about.

Not everybody has lots of data on their mobile phone contracts, or indeed any contract at all. I can't imagine why you would want to turn it off, under most circumstances, it's one of the reasons I went back to BT.

I did read of one chap who was at the side of a campsite, and had people jumping his garden wall to use the wifi - but I think I would have found other ways to deter that!

As said before, it doesn't impact on household wifi as it only utilises unused bandwidth. If you max out the home broadband connection, BT-Wifi goes dead.

When connected, it seems to max out at 9Mb up/down for me.

I only have 2GB on my mobile contract. Back in the day when I was with BT, I think it was 50MB or something like that, but then it was a HTC Windows phone 6 or something like that and the whole point was to use Fon, but there was just never enough coverage where I went.

I doubt to be honest it would be much different for me now.

My problem with fon or BT -wi-fi or what ever they want to call it was that it used to confuse my computer Wi-fi, one of the reason why I went to Ethernet. Looking at my phone now, there is 4 Bt-wi-fi hotspots, two are pretty strong as they are next doors, but two are weak, my computer used to try to connect to them instead of my own network,

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

I only have 2GB on my mobile contract. Back in the day when I was with BT, I think it was 50MB or something like that, but then it was a HTC Windows phone 6 or something like that and the whole point was to use Fon, but there was just never enough coverage where I went.

I doubt to be honest it would be much different for me now.

I'm in a rural area, and out here BT Wifi works very well, usually see the full 9Mb anywhere in the village. Most people are on BT because of the reduced ISP choice, so there's lots of good access points available.

In town, it's a bit different. There are more routers visible, but less of them are BT. At my parents house, I can see only one BT in range, and it definitely feels a bit congested at the weekends, speeds are up and down. It's never failed to work so far though, and the app connects you to it automagically. I'm finding it invaluable.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

My problem with fon or BT -wi-fi or what ever they want to call it was that it used to confuse my computer Wi-fi, one of the reason why I went to Ethernet. Looking at my phone now, there is 4 Bt-wi-fi hotspots, two are pretty strong as they are next doors, but two are weak, my computer used to try to connect to them instead of my own network,

Can't say I have ever had that problem, and we have had BT Wifi hotspots around us for years. We also have loads of devices connected by wifi... wifi adapter should be able to cope with a few open networks nearby!