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WirelessDevNet.com Press Release
BT has beefed up its Wi-Fi network through a "landmark" deal with McDonalds
BT has beefed up its Wi-Fi network through a "landmark" deal with McDonalds that will see it install BT OpenZone hotspots in 561 of the chain's restaurants over the next three months.
The company aims to have 250 of the McDonalds hotspots up and running by the end of this month, in time for its planned Wi-Fi week, which will offer new and existing users free access to OpenZone during a seven-day period in a bid to boost take-up of the technology.
BT is installing hotspots in all of the McDonalds flagship restaurants in major cities, including its newly refurbished London restaurants in The Strand, Oxford Street and Liverpool Street station.
However, the majority of the McDonalds sites will be in drive-thru restaurants that are popular with business travellers - the idea being to enable users to check email and connect back to their office via OpenZone whilst having a quick bite to eat.
The companies said they are initially targeting business customers on the move, but hope to attract more consumers when Wi-Fi reaches a critical mass in the next 18 to 24 months.
Users will be able to log onto the internet via their Wi-Fi enabled laptop or PDA, and eventually through consumer devices such as gaming and music devices line Nokia's N-Gage, which are adding Wi-Fi support.
"It's still a new market," said David Huges, CEO, BT Wireless Broadband. "We think 2004 will be the tipping point, where we see it really starting to motor."
McDonalds has already installed Wi-Fi hotspots in 400 restaurants in several major US cities, which have proved to be a boost to business.
Steve Tiley, head of management information systems at McDonalds in the UK, said a recent survey revealed that US customers tended to be a high proportion of educated males, quite a high percentage of which said they would not have visited McDonalds had it not offered Wi-Fi, and that they planned to return.
"We obviously want to try and echo that in the UK," Tiley added. He said McDonalds looked at several competing Wi-Fi network operators but chose BT because of the advertising and investment it is putting into raising awareness about wireless hotspots, and because of its roaming partnerships throughout Europe and the US.
BT already has 1,800 live hotspots around the UK, and has set a target of 4,000 by this summer. Following the initial free Wi-Fi week, which starts on 26 January, BT and McDonalds are planning another Wi-Fi week in April, offering free Wi-Fi at just the McDonalds hotspots once all 561 sites are up and running.
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