Cooling concerns

The public Wi-Fi market continues to grow at a healthy pace, with the total number of public hot spots worldwide at 68,644, according to numbers released last month by JiWire, the hot spot directory and tracking service. The vast majority of these hot spots, more than 61,000, charge a fee for access. Meanwhile, the convergence of public Wi-Fi with other communications technologies, such as cellular voice and data and voice over IP, continues to take shape. Cellular/Wi-Fi dual mode service and handsets are beginning their first commercial tests and VoIP service providers like Skype and Vonage are aligning with premier hot spot aggregators like Boingo Wireless.

All of this progress is beginning to make it apparent that Wi-Fi has survived and matured beyond much of the controversy that seemed to cloud its early years. Cellular carriers that were once reticent to even have association with Wi-Fi now have marketing partnerships with public hot spot players which, while not necessarily defining their core business plans, are giving them a presence they may have lacked in places such as major airports. The alignments with VoIP providers come after there was much speculation how public hot spots could continue to add value — could voice actually be the killer app?

There is certainly more controversy to come outside of public Wi-Fi hot spots. In the enterprise market, deployment of Wi-Fi continues to grow while cellular carriers largely avoid associations with the technology. In the residential market, fixed-mobile convergence (“fixed” meaning either wireline or Wi-Fi) is still being met with skepticism that won't abate until the results of initial service launches like BT Fusion are in. But after much concern and controversy about public Wi-Fi, it is settling in as exactly what it sought to become: a medium of convenient high-speed access that boosts the reputations and the revenue opportunites of any venue it reaches.