BT launches smartphone app for Wi-Fi hotspot access

BT's new smartphone app connects automatically using Wi-Fi to BT Wi-Fi hotspots

BT has launched a smartphone app to automatically connect its customers to its Wi-Fi hotspot network, made up of BT Openzone and BT FON hotspots.

The new BT FON app provides BT's Total Broadband customers with smartphone Wi-Fi access to BT's network. The company said there are 1.6 million free and unlimited Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide.

Users of Android and iPhone devices can download the free application from Apple's iTune App Store and the Android Market.

BT Retail Consumer managing director John Petter said: "The application represents real value to our customers at a time when more and more people are using their mobile phone to access the internet."

BT said the new app would also include a weekly updated mapping service for customers to find their nearest hotspot.

All users have to do, said BT, was to type in their BT internet email user name and password, and the app would automatically log them into a hotspot whenever they encountered a BT Wi-Fi area.

There is also an option to prompt users before automatically logging into a hotspot.

Before the new smartphone app, users had to browse to the specific hotspot they required and log in manually.

BT has also said it will give 50p for every BT FON application downloaded to the BBC Children in Need charity.