BT advocates WiFi for spying on neighbours

DESCRIBING HOW BT's latest plans to WiFi enable whole cities might work, BT's mobility chief, Steven Andrews, told The Business that local authorities could use wireless to automatically detect noisy parties.

"In the case of a noisy party it would not be necessary for neighbours to complain," Andrews suggested. "The matter could be attended to automatically."

BT envisages local authorities will take advantage of their new wireless networks by fitting Webcams and sensors across their cities. Indeed, The Business claimed that such cameras would have as radical effect on reducing crime as the introduction of street lighting in the last century.

BT has just announced plans to roll out its 'wide radius' wireless broadband networks across six new cities, bringing the total of British cities BT intends to cover to 20 over the next 18 months.

While BT is working closely with Cisco and Intel to roll out these wireless networks, it also envisages users making free VoIP calls across the network. Although there's a hint that Toshiba and Sony might make devices that are a cross between a phone and a laptop, they're hardly likely to be widely adopted.

The INQ feels it more likely that dedicated wireless Internet handsets will be required along the lines of the Skype compatible stand-alone handset that Netgear showed at CES 2006. µ

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