I just read a great article at Mashable about how the iphone is dominating mobile wifi usage. And in light of this dominance, I’m wondering if we could possibly see the iPhone being the launching pad for global wifi access!
Certainly the standard wifi router in your house isn’t powering access much beyond your front porch. Yet with devices like the iPhone and laptops, having wifi access anywhere you go is something that I believe the market really wants – and by the market, I mean the general population of iPhone and laptop users.
I know that the Obama administration is making a push to increase Internet accessibility. And with the recent stimulus packages, perhaps we’ll see more of a concerted effort from the government to help encourage wifi access on a more global and regional level.
Part of the recent stimulus packages includes subsidies to metro areas to install a series of wifi routers around town. But these routers are likely nothing more than elaborate wifi routers that you have in your home. Surely we need something more powerful than hundreds of wifi boxes throughout our cities to realistically deliver wifi on a large scale.
I remember somewhere that wifi is being tested and transmitted across FM radio waves. If something like this comes into the mainstream, we’ll be measuring wifi in terms of miles instead of feet.
So with the rising popularity of iPhones and other data devices, the push for global wifi access is here. And since we, the public, are desiring wifi access on a global scale, surely some company is going to step up and produce what the market desires.