back to article O2 Wi-Fi slips into McDonalds, steals The Cloud's lunch

O2 continues to expand its free Wi-Fi offering, this time donning a hairnet to push into 1,200 McDonalds hotspots which will become O2 branded just in time for the London Olympics. Not that there will be any additional Wi-Fi coverage; the clown-branded eateries already offer free Wi-Fi connections complete with family-friendly …

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  1. Pavlov's obedient mutt
    Happy

    thank the SBJ

    all power to you lot over in England right now, but every day I thank the Sweet Baby-J that its you guys with the advert-promotional-marketing-slobber-fest that is "this summers' festivities" and not here in (the real) Europe.

    Even tho, I still get a nauseating 10min advert from the sweet-dark-fizzy drink people every-freaking-time I go see a movie.

  2. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Happy

    All for one and one for all

    I discovered a while back that T-Mobile block access to fanfiction.net in the USA on the grounds that it's not family friendly ... my 13-year old needed access to that site so now she has access to everything.

    Yea - filtering, I've heard of it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: All for one and one for all

      Some McDonalds are being refitted to go all upmarket - well upmarket from say Burger King. Amongst the newness are row after row of tethered iPads - all of which come with 'The Sun' app. Although the reading age is well suited to small children, I wouldn't call the paper's content suitable for children.

  3. Jess

    Do they still have a stupid login page?

    If so, it makes the system far less useful. Some devices won't work. And you can't just leave the others in your pocket to fetch messages when able, you have to log in.

    I went to a McDonalds in Belgrade. They just have a open wifi network called McDonalds. Why do we have an inferior system?

    1. Miek

      Re: Do they still have a stupid login page?

      Advertising and Email address gathering.

      1. Wize

        Re: Do they still have a stupid login page?

        Does anyone give them real information?

        And if anyone has an email address of 'notonyourbloodylife@hotmail.com' I apologise for getting you spam from some pub's wifi point at the weekend.

  4. TonyHoyle

    When it works..

    The problem is the staff have no clue about it, they just switch it on when they open up in the morning.. and so few people use it it can be broken for days before anyone even mentions it. They're sold a magic box that'll 'pull in the customers' barely know what it is.

    A local McDs had broken cloud for about 6 months before they finally gave up and switched it off permanently.. The one in starbucks stopped dishing out IPs about a week after it was installed.. and I've lost count of the number of cafes and hotels offering 'Free Wifi' that offer nothing of the sort because it just doesn't work, and nobody gives enough of a shit to fix it.

    No problem for me - I stick to 3G, which works everywhere.

    1. Eponymous Cowherd

      Re: When it works..

      "No problem for me - I stick to 3G, which works everywhere."

      Please let me know which planet this is as I want to move there.

      1. Only me!
        Pint

        Re: When it works..

        Yep....when I go in somewhere that claims to have "Free wi-fi" If I am going to be there for some time I will have one go at getting online......when that fails I turn on my 3G hotspot on my phone. (And carry a spare battery, I can do that not having an iPhone, so down vote me now) Even if you only get GRPS it is good enough to do the basics, picking up email and having a look at the news.

        When you get use to having a slow connection you soon get use to clicking links on the main page while pressing CTRL so it opens the link on a new page.....by the time you have waited for the first one to load and read it, the chances are the next one has already loaded in the back ground.

        I think Wi-Fi does have a place in the home and in very poor mobile areas, but it is getting very cheap to just take your own with you!

        Off to the pub where the wifi does not work :-)

  5. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
    Flame

    Furious at laptop user hogging tables

    /me prods them with the MacDonalds Tray and Happy Meal

    Don't know about everyone else, I go to McDonalds for something to eat rather than surf. I wish they would get rid of it so I have somewhere to sit if I am eating in away from the yobs having a food fights.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    McD fan here

    As a father of two, I've been wheedled into the local arches shops quite a few times. They're OK.

    Where I got really thankful to McDonalds was when visiting EuroDisney. Only place where you could feed four people for 20 euros, versus 80 to 100 in most any other restaurant or hotel in a five mile radius. (And no shops to buy a packet of crisps or cookies - the Mouse is a jealous lord.)

    Plus, one could use the free WiFi (not available in our hotel) to quickly check the weather forecast, confirming that one would continue to enjoy freezing rain for the next day.

    1. Fibbles

      Re: McD fan here

      I don't know if it's still true of the McDonald's in the Disney Village right next to the theme-park but you used to be able to order a beer with your burger. First time I've had a happy meal that wasn't guilty of false advertising.

  7. Graham 25
    FAIL

    BT Openzone is also less than worthless

    I have given up with O2 wifi offering on my phone these days - the Openzone hotspots are so polluted by a massive ratio of non-inclusive Openzone hotspots that its practically impossible to find one that you get as part of your inclusive bundle, and with them having the correct SSID, you find you're connected but effectively 'off the air' until you turn wifi off.

    As soon as my contract with O2 is up, I am off to someone who actually provides a workable wifi bundle.

  8. illiad

    Yes, 3G, which works everywhere...

    He does NOT mean the company, he means the general service that provides more than 100k download... FYI..

    GPRS (2.5g) 115 kbit/s

    CDMA (2.6g??) 153 kbit/s

    EDGE (2.75g) 236.8 kbit/s

    NO, dont qoute me, the definitions are just confused by me-too, mine is better idiots!!!

    It is Up to you, to go and get a clue, yourself!!!

    saying 'All the above names, not 3g' is about the same as saying you want a McD, not *just* a Burger...

    As others have said, I prefer my children **quiet** rather than fast web..

    and peeps forget you have to **pay O2** for the privilege....

    or NOT get it, if you bought a cheaper mobile package!

    tell that to someone angry about how slow their O2 is, when your non-O2 is going much faster!!! :D

  9. This post has been deleted by its author

  10. Tim Almond
    FAIL

    Olympics...meh

    Why do people link stuff to The Olympics like this? Do they think people are going to be walking around Exeter or Derby and despairing because they can't get the results of the greco-roman wrestling?

    Its a 3 week sporting even featuring sports that people generally couldn't care less about, not The Rapture.

    1. illiad

      Re: Olympics...meh

      hey its not fer yer normal folk... but for those moneyed fools, who signed up for tickets, and then got a big surprise when the £50,000 bill arrived!!!! :D :D

      we shall just haveta wait and see in 2013, whether it has been good for the area, or as badly managed as the dome was...

      thinks of all the old 'Olympic parks' that are now rotten and overgrown with weeds... :( :(

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