ISPs aren't known for encouraging users to share bandwidth, but that's exactly what BT wants UK customers to do. The Spanish WiFi specialist FON offers routers that enable people to "securely" share their high-speed connections with strangers; in return, the sharers get access to any other FON access point in the world. Now, the model is coming to the UK as BT partners with FON.

BT will encourage its three million broadband users to pick up a FON router and start sharing signals. The router provides two channels: one for public access, and one for access by the owner. The public channel is bandwidth-limited so as not to disrupt the user's own connection. Other "Foneros" can access the public channel for free, while non-Foneros can pay a few dollars a day to use the access points.

FON has currently signed a similar deal with Time Warner Cable in the US. For those who travel often, one of the benefits of the system is its global reach. FON members can freely access any of the 190,000 FON hotspots around the world.

For BT, the move makes its broadband offering more useful to customers, who can access the Internet from more places, and BT doesn't need to build out a new wireless network itself. BT's Gavin Patterson, a managing director, holds out hopes that the FON scheme can someday "cover every street in Britain."

"We are giving our millions of Total Broadband customers a choice and an opportunity," he added in a statement. "If they are prepared to securely share a little of their broadband, they can share the broadband at hundreds of thousands of FON and BT Openzone hotspots today, without paying a penny."

Assuming that FON's routers really do keep home networks secure, this sounds like an excellent idea. Given WiFi's limited range, though, it may prove to be of limited value outside of urban areas, unless you like sitting with an open laptop in the front yard of total strangers.