Traveling to UK? If you want to access Internet in UK with your PDA or notebook, then here you will learn how it is done in UK. BT Openzone - a service offered by BT - has in UK a practically monopolistic position as far as Wi-Fi access is concerned. In other words: if you wish to access Internet with Wi-Fi in UK then you have to, in most cases, use service provided by BT - the BT Openzone.
Wi-Fi access by BT Openzone is provided in many hotels, restaurants, coffe shops, and other public places. Also at airports in UK in most cases BT Openzone is the only Wi-Fi service available.
While you can buy the access to the Internet with BT Openzone service online (while connected by Wi-Fi - by simply trying to enter any URL the web site of BT Openzone appears) and pay by credit card, for some people the preferred way is buying a scratch card:
... which is called by BT by a term "pre-pay voucher". There are 2 kinds of such vouchers, for 6 British pounds (yes, UK is in EU but they donīt have "Euro" currency as most old EU countries) you get "1 hour" voucher
(60 minutes use within 24 hours) or "24 hour" voucher for 15 British pounds (24 hours from login).
Well, so how it works? You try to open some web site (yes, you can try to enter "www.msmobiles.com" at the beginning) then you will see a page, where you can log-in with user name and passowrd from the scratch card mentioned and pictured above:
After entering the password the page changes to this one:
... where you can log-out, which makes sense if you bought "1 hour" voucher because it allows you to "save the time for later". Logging out makes no sense if you have "24 hour voucher" - because then only the time of the first logging in counts. At the same time the original page, which you requested appears in other window.
Interestingly on the scratch card BT mentioned Pocket PC, not any other PDA devices! Here are some quotes:
from the backside of the scratch card:
What customers need to use BT Openzone
A log-in and password + a laptop or Pocket PC PDA + a WLAN card.
from one of the internal pages of the scratch card:
What is BT Openzone
The BT Openzone service provides customers, using laptops and Pocket PC PDAs, with fast, wireless internet access at a growing network of UK īhotspotsī.
from one of the internal pages of the scratch card:
The service works through the customerīs usual web browser but is optimised for Internet Explorer 5 or Internet Pocket Explorer.
Conclusions: BT Openzone provides a useful service for people visiting UK (or living there). Country to GPRS, where amount of transferred data is charged, with Wi-Fi only time of usage is charged, so it looks like Wi-Fi from BT Openzone is the best way to go online in UK if you are "just visiting" or if you are travelling there.
To learn more about Wi-Fi service from BT Openzone (including exact list of places where you can find it) click here.
Mobile Windows News | 
Podcasts | 
Videos | 
Store | Search | Forums | Site News
