Recently we reported on a new fixed wireless ISP called BWiFi (here), which was set to launch a superfast broadband (50-75Mbps) service to help poorly served parts of South East London (e.g. Rotherhithe). Sadly a legal spat with BT has forced the provider to change name to Bkonex and delay its launch.
The service had originally been expected to go live during the end of July 2016, although doubts were soon cast over this date when it emerged that BT had been “threatening us with legal action because of our choice of name.”
We are currently still awaiting BT’s side of the story, although visually the logos are completely different and so we suspect that the operator’s complaint is perhaps more related to their “BT Wi-fi” sub-brand that is much closer to BWiFi in terms of spelling.
Never the less BWiFi has now been re-branded to Bkonex and a recent update, which was sent to customers over the weekend and has also been seen by ISPreview.co.uk (credits to one of our readers), states that the service launch has had to be put back slightly to the end of August 2016.
Bkonex’s Message to Customers
The journey started under the name BWiFi Limited but in the past nearly two months we have had to battle with the almighty BT who accused us of copyright infringement based on our chosen name. At the end of the day we had to change our name instead fighting on and further delay our launch which we suppose you have been anxiously waiting for. This temporary setback has meant that we can no longer meet up our commitment to launch by end of July; we are now looking at end of August.
On the bright side we want to assure you that we would provide you with high quality internet service. Bkonex would never allow her network to be congested our commitment to quality is uncompromising. Bkonex aim is to provide you with internet speed of upto 50Mbps and according to our roadmap, in a year’s time we would be giving you speeds of over 200Mbps per household, matching and beating every provider out there.
Bkonex has her own network infrastructure which is independent of both BT and Virgin Media; we are deploying a unique technology. At the moment all our equipment have been ETSI certified to be used in Europe and the UK by the European authority. Bkonex can’t wait for the start of this new exciting chapter of our history.
As for the network itself, Bkonex claims that at launch it should be able to “cover all parts” of SE16, which apparently means the whole of Rotherhithe, Surrey Quays, Canada Water, a large part of Bermondey and another a large part of the SE8 area.
The ISP also says that they’re “open to delivering” direct fibre optic connections to new developments around these areas during the first phase of their service launch. On top of that they also want to hear from any customers who might be willing to let the ISP use their rooftops for redistribution in exchange for “some kind of monthly rental” (i.e. wayleave agreement).
BT has of course been notoriously slow to solve the broadband slow-spots in and around the Rotherhithe area (here), although some of their local upgrades are slowly making progress and the operator’s network access division (Openreach) recently stated that they were still “committed to extending our coverage of fibre broadband” in the area.
UPDATE 11:23am
The official reply from BT is as follows, which confirms our earlier prediction.
A BT Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:
“BT can confirm it has made a trademark infringement complaint against BWiFi Limited. The infringement relates to the BWifi logo which, being too similar to the BT Wifi logo, would have confused the public and infringed BT’s trade mark rights.”
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