BT saw more than 400 million connections across its wi-fi network in 2012/13* and latest figures show users’ online wi-fi time is increasing, with minutes more than tripling in the same period.
An incredible 13 petabytes of data (13 billion megabytes) were consumed across BT’s Wi-fi network during 2012/13*. The volume is the equivalent of downloading 3.9 billion MP3s (iTunes currently has 26m songs in its library), or non-stop streaming of The Hobbit in HD for 1,042 years[1]. If you were to take smartphone photos placed side by side, this amount of data would be over 624,000 miles long or long enough to wrap around the equator twice.
Research conducted by BT and ICM*** has found that usage trends for wi-fi vary according to age. Most 18-24s favour wi-fi for social media, whilst the 35-44 age group chooses to shop online. Most 45-54s use it for GPS and mapping services, whilst the over 65s use wi-fi for finding discount vouchers or codes.
Andy Baker, BT Wi-fi CEO, said: “The time wi-fi users spend online and the amount of data they’re using is up across our network. People are now so confident and comfortable with their gadgets, we’ve had to meet the demand with more hotspots in a wider choice of places – on the high street and in thousands of neighbourhoods across the country.”
There are now more than 764,000 places where people can connect via BT Wi-fi in the South East, 464,000 in Scotland, 519,000 in the East, around 501,000 in the South West, and more than 543,000 in London. BT has also made it even easier for people to find a wi-fi hotspot when out and about in the capital by teaming up with Recce, the immersive 3D city map to include BT Wi-fi hotspots in the latest Recce London app. BT’s own Wi-fi apps are also proving popular with almost 2 million downloads by BT Broadband customers and are available in the relevant app stores for Windows, iOS, Android and Blackberry users.
All BT Wi-fi hotspots are free and unlimited for BT Broadband customers – although anyone can logon. It’s available at brands like Starbucks, GAME, John Lewis, Network Rail and Hilton plus millions of homes and thousands of independent businesses.