In the near future, we won't need cell phones for Internet access in many urban areas. A trend among communication companies is to extend the reach of their customers through public WiFi. Public means outside the customer's home. Access is usually free to customers, but in some cases requires a subscription.
For some companies, public WiFi is a way to ease the load on their cellular networks. For example, AT&T gives its cell phone subscribers access to 25,000 public WiFi hotspots across USA. Verizon offers "thousands" of hotspots to customers. The idea is to help keep big downloads, such as streaming video, off the cell network.
For other companies, public WiFi access _is_ their business. Boingo is a USA based company that sells monthly subscriptions to their network of 50,000 WiFi hotspots worldwide. For example, one Boingo plan gives access to 30,000 WiFi hotspots in North, Central and South America for $10 a month. Recently, Boingo and Google have experimented with sponsored WiFi service. A big company (Google in this example) pays the WiFi network owner (Boingo) an advertising fee. The fee sponsors the free use of the WiFi network. In exchange, an ad is displayed to folks who connect to the WiFi hotspot.
For other companies, it's a way to give access to content when their customers are out of the house. Cable TV companies Comcast, Time Warner and Cablevision have free WiFi networks that allow their Internet subscribers free access to WiFi outside the home.
I'm a Comcast customer. Looking near my home near San Francisco, I see seven Comcast public hotspots within a mile of my house. Five are outdoors, two indoors, presumably inside a business of some sort. The town next door, which has hotels and a shopping district, has 36 hotspots. I'm going to take my iPad for a walk! Access to the hotspots is through my Comcast account and password.
Here's the web site to find Comcast WiFi access points across USA
http://hotspots.wifi.comcast.com/index.php
For some companies, public WiFi is a way to ease the load on their cellular networks. For example, AT&T gives its cell phone subscribers access to 25,000 public WiFi hotspots across USA. Verizon offers "thousands" of hotspots to customers. The idea is to help keep big downloads, such as streaming video, off the cell network.
For other companies, public WiFi access _is_ their business. Boingo is a USA based company that sells monthly subscriptions to their network of 50,000 WiFi hotspots worldwide. For example, one Boingo plan gives access to 30,000 WiFi hotspots in North, Central and South America for $10 a month. Recently, Boingo and Google have experimented with sponsored WiFi service. A big company (Google in this example) pays the WiFi network owner (Boingo) an advertising fee. The fee sponsors the free use of the WiFi network. In exchange, an ad is displayed to folks who connect to the WiFi hotspot.
For other companies, it's a way to give access to content when their customers are out of the house. Cable TV companies Comcast, Time Warner and Cablevision have free WiFi networks that allow their Internet subscribers free access to WiFi outside the home.
I'm a Comcast customer. Looking near my home near San Francisco, I see seven Comcast public hotspots within a mile of my house. Five are outdoors, two indoors, presumably inside a business of some sort. The town next door, which has hotels and a shopping district, has 36 hotspots. I'm going to take my iPad for a walk! Access to the hotspots is through my Comcast account and password.
Here's the web site to find Comcast WiFi access points across USA
http://hotspots.wifi.comcast.com/index.php
