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UK telecom company BT Group first to use Xbox 360 as set-top box
Having previously announced its intentions to have the Xbox 360 as a set-top box (STB) at last year's Consumer Electronics Show, Bill Gates told the audience at this year's keynote that British telecommunications company BT Group will be the first company to use the console as a set-top box, whose interface was most recently seen by accident in a repaired console.Said Gates, "The final announcement, last year we talked about the 360 being an STB -- this year we're excited to announce that BT will be the first to provide that capability. Buy a 360 and use it as an STB for your TV." No other details are given (what about DVR?), but we're hoping to hear some more soon. Check out our hands-on with the service from last year's show.
BT Group hooks up with FON for widespread WiFi
It took quite a few months to make the call, but it seems the chatter between FON and BT Group has finally resulted in a deal. Announced today, Britain's top fixed-line carrier will be teaming up with FON to allow "more than three million UK broadband customers to use hundreds of thousands of hotspots for free." BT customers who agree to share a pinch of their broadband connection(s) will be eligible to surf away gratis on any of the "190,000" FON hotspots worldwide, and BT Group apparently hopes that this deal will eventually lead to "every street in Britain" being covered by WiFi.
BT Group chatting up FON for partnership
Good news all 'round for BT Fusion, BT Broadband and FON lovers of the UK: BT Group is reportedly in talks with FON for a hefty partnership that extends the services of both companies extensively. In exchange for allowing BT Fusion users to replace those pricey Vodafone minutes on their phones with free FON WiFi UMA lovin', BT will officially give its blessing to users sharing their BT bandwidth over FON -- ISPs usually frown on the practice -- and even go so far as to push a FON firmware upgrade to its own users' broadband routers. Subscribers can opt out, but we're sure plenty of users will bite at the chance, since signing up for FON not only gives you profit sharing from people who pay to use your access point, but also gives you free WiFi access to other FON routers. With the 10,000 FON users already in Britain, the country could become one of the top spots for free-ish WiFi, and might give BT one of the best UMA services around, but neither company is talking about the deal just yet, so we'll wait for everything to be legit before we do our little "free WiFi party" dance.[Via WNN; thanks R Gomez]
