The kind of Wi-Fi blanket I'm talking about means you can reach into your pocket, take out your Wi-Fi enabled device and just connect wirelessly to as you're walking down a street. Probably a big business street.
Right now, I can down into a mall, an office park, or restaurant, and there are usually three to five access points. Unfortunately, not always accessible because they're protected by wireless security measures like WEP or WPA.
This week, BN in conjunction with ATT will allow free Wi-Fi access at its bookstores. And now, the New York Public Library will have a dedicated room with Wi-Fi access. There's already Wi-Fi access at my local libraries and some local coffee shops. Still, with my iPod Touch, I'd have to go from spot to spot in order to access the Internet.
I'm fine with that. However, it is 2009 and if I'm walking through the busy streets of New York or downtown Seattle or San Francisco, I think it's time we mobile warriors expect to find open Wi-Fi AP's pretty much anywhere that has a lot of foot traffic don't you think?
Whether you're walking on the Vegas strip or the streets of Westwood in Los Angeles where you get big throng of people, it makes sense for wireless providers and the local governments to allow patrons to access the Internet through Wi-Fi access points rather than cell towers where overloading can take place. It takes the load off the towers.
Remember last week, we talked about the solar flowers Toyota displayed as part of their Prius campaign? Okay, I doubt cities will go that far but in true, it makes a lot of sense to create a blanket of Wi-Fi access points in the business parts of the city, if not to increase productivity and convenience, how about driving traffic to the sake of the local businesses?
Maybe they'll want to chip in the cost of creating such a localized network?
No comments:
Post a Comment