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News and information for free public access Wi-Fi location owners and users

We call a hotspot that offers free Wi-Fi internet access a Wi-Fi-FreeSpot.

Click here for the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory.

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Want to learn how to build a FreeSpot? Go to WiFiFreenet.

 
Running a business from a Free Wi-Fi location

Here's a great story about Delicious Monster software using a Zoka Coffee location in Seattle as their office.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/255532_macdelicious13.html
posted by Jim at 12:09 PM

 
2005 Free Wi-Fi Review

The number of individual Free W-Fi locations added to the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory grew at a steady pace that averaged about 300 per month in 2005. From small rural libraries to large county library systems, from local restaurants and cafes to national chain/franchised restaurants and cafes, from small hotels, motels and B&Bs to large national and international hospitality chains, from regional airports to some of the largest and busiest airports in the World, from rural and metropolitan USA to Estonia, France, Argentina, Australia and beyond the growth of Free Wi-Fi availability in 2005 was quite pervasive and indications for 2006 look just as positive.

Whether it was a library that offered free Wi-Fi as a service to their community, or a coffee shop that offered free Wi-Fi as a perk for their existing customers or a way to draw in new customers and sell more coffee, or a Hotel that offered Free Wi-Fi as an amenity to help fill more rooms there were a variety of reasons for why library trustees, business owners and corporate marketing execs thought it made sense to offer Free Wi-Fi.

In 2005 a lot of press regarding Free Wi-Fi access was focused on municipalities like Philadelphia and San Francisco that asked for bids from private companies to install and provide city wide Free access (when the smoke clears the eventual coverage will probably not be strictly 802.11 Wi-Fi based as more frequency spectrum specifications are approved and hardware released).

One interesting delevelopment regarding the term Wi-Fi in 2005 was the agreement that the term really doesn't mean anything, much less "short for wireless fidelity" as a lot of us have been saying.

In summation, 2005 was a great year for the widespread availability of Free Wi-Fi for local residents and travelers alike. In 2006 I expect the growth to continue and especially in the USA very few people will be far away from a Free Wi-Fi location of some type. In the rest of the World growth will also continue but it will still take awhile for free access to be available outside the major metropolitan areas.

Once again I'd like to thank all the people who took the time to send in e-mails with new locations to be added to the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory. Keep them coming.
posted by Jim at 2:42 PM