The WiFi hot-spot concept has been gaining acceptance, and analysts expect the number of U.S. locations to grow from the current 10,000 to more than 40,000 in five years. As hot-spot services become more popular, corporations are experimenting with various business models to justify their deployment. It is fairly straightforward to understand how fee-based WiFi services work, but a surprising number of organizations are delivering them gratis, and that has been generating debate about the validity of their business models.
Wi-Fi will become ubiquitous and it will be free. With the latest Wi-fi standard expected to have a range of 30 miles, it is likely that a new Wi-Fi Internet may emerge that will be separate from the wired Internet and not require ISPs or telecommunications corporations. Expect to see Wi-Fi versions of a kind of P2P Internet system as yet unimagined. Expect to see 30 mile radius clouds of Internet Wi-Fi extending across continents with distributed access points similar to ham radio repeaters. Wi-Fi has just begun to get interesting.
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WiFi – To Free or Not To Free
Posted by: Paul Korzeniowski October 14, 2003 04:13 AMThe WiFi hot-spot concept has been gaining acceptance, and analysts expect the number of U.S. locations to grow from the current 10,000 to more than 40,000 in five years. As hot-spot services become more popular, corporations are experimenting with various business models to justify their deployment. It is fairly straightforward to understand how fee-based WiFi services work, but a surprising number of organizations are delivering them gratis, and that has been generating debate about the validity of their business models.