Tesco and BT are teaming up to offer high speed in-store Wi-Fi

If there’s one thing that used to drive me crazy about my hometown it’s that the local Tesco had zero phone signal once you ventured more than three feet inside, and the in-store Wi-Fi wasn’t much help. Imagine my joy when I heard that Tesco was teaming up with BT to offer high speed Wi-Fi in 806 Tesco Extra and superstores across the UK.

By high speed they really mean high speed, because the top tier limit is 76Mbps. That’s impressive, but some of you  might be slightly worried that this will simply be a extension of BT’s Openzone network, and the speedy Wi-Fi will only be available to BT customers.  Not so, the new network is 100% free for everyone which makes the speeds offered all the more impressive.

Tesco director Tomas Kadlec said:

“Customers now want the same kind of experience in-store as they enjoy online, with fast and convenient access to product information, pricing and offers at the touch of their fingertips.We were the first supermarket in the UK to offer free WiFi and the first to launch online shopping. We’re now bringing these innovations together to put our customers in control with better service and value than ever before.”

Tesco claims that the new services will allow customers to more easily download Clubcard vouchers, view recipes, and take advantage of in-store offers. I bet it will also be pretty useful for parents to distract their kids with Netflix and keep them quiet during the weekly shop.

Image: Tiverton: Tesco by Martin Bodman via Wikimedia Commons