Earlier this evening, I was trawling through the fine print on the O2 website (hey, I have to do something whilst I’m eating alone in a hotel restaurant) and I found a reference to free Wi-Fi access from BT Openzone hot spots. Hang on – BT Openzone… that’s new! When did that happen?

Well, according to O2’s Wi-Fi FAQ it hasn’t happened yet but it will soon:

Wireless Hotspots
O2 has partnered with The Cloud to provide you with unlimited access to over 7500 public Wi-Fi hotspots across the UK on your iPhone. Excessive usage policy applies. From 11 July, you will also get access to 2000 Wi-Fi hotspots from BT Openzone.
Find the hotspots closest to you

I tried to use the BT Openzone at the Hilton East Midlands hotel last night (7 July) with my iPhone and it worked. Just like at The Cloud, all I had to do was enter my mobile number, wait for the site to recognise my iPhone and then I was redirected to the O2 iPhone start page – which is a pretty good portal for iPhone users and even includes a hotspot finder.

O2 can be pretty shoddy at times but this is A Good Thing.