Virgin Media broadband and mobile customers will soon be able to access free Wi-Fi in public places around the UK as Virgin harnesses customers' Super Hub and Super Hub 2 routers as Wi-Fi hotspots, allowing users to get online without eating into their mobile data.

Starting this autumn, Virgin Media will enable hundreds of Super Hubs to create new Virgin Media Wi-Fi areas across the UK, including city centres, airports and the streets near your home. It's a similar idea to BT FON, which currently lets BT customers get online by using a small portion of other BT members' BT Home Hub or wireless router's bandwidth to turn it into a BT wireless hotspot.

Like BT FON, Virgin Media Wi-Fi will use a separate connection to your own personal Super Hub, so you don't need to worry about strangers hijacking your network or slowing down your streaming speeds. "The broadband you love and pay for will stay exclusively yours ? and remain just as secure," Virgin Media said on its website.

"Virgin Media Wi-Fi uses a separate, additional internet connection on your Super Hub than the one used by your home broadband network," Virgin added in its FAQ. "This keeps the data from your home network completely separate from Virgin Media WiFi traffic. A user of Virgin Media Wi-Fi can't see anything on the in-home broadband network, nor can someone using the in-home broadband network see a Virgin Media Wi-Fi user's activity. There is also a separate content filtering policy for Virgin Media Wi-Fi which doesn't affect your Web Safe settings in the home."

Virgin says download speeds will vary from area to area, but said "you can expect to enjoy speeds similar to those that you enjoy at home." There will, of course, be a fair use policy on how much data you can use so people don't abuse the system, but Virgin has yet to outline a specific download limit, so you should still be able to download files, stream movies and keep up to date with your various social networks without running into any data restrictions.

To access the service, Virgin Media broadband customers will need to opt in to the service and download Virgin's new dedicated app on their phone to get online when they're out and about. Virgin Mobile customers, meanwhile, don't need to opt in, but they will need to download the app once it becomes available. Once broadband customers have set up the service through their My Virgin Media profile online, they'll be able to register up to seven devices they can use on the move and each one will automatically connect to the nearest in-range Super Hub. All you need to do is sign in and you're ready to surf the web.

Of course, customers who don't want their routers to be used as part of the service can always opt out through their My Virgin Media profile, but it does mean they won't be able to take advantage of the free Wi-Fi.