The Canadian company, Seaboard Group crystal ball is glowing with Wi-Fi predictions. In a recent commentary on this issue, Canadians Cut Their Wires on the Wi-Fi phenomenon, Seaboard Group predicted that by 2007, Wi-Fi hardware equipment and integration services will exceed 800 million with shipments of 1.7 million base stations and 3.2 million access cards. This prediction is quite impressive. However, these figures do not take into account the computers that have built in Wi-Fi capability, which a new generation consumers will be buying. What are some of the drawbacks to this huge growth spurt? The benefits to this Wi-Fi phenomenon clearly outweigh the drawbacks.If you are a US cellular subscriber and have signed up for wireless Broadband Access with Verizon wireless, you are locked into Verizons network. This means you can not use the public Wi-Fi hotspots with your smartphone or PDA. Wi Fi Roaming vs. Cell Phone Roaming If you want to call some one, or receive calls on your cellular phone and you happen to be outside your home calling area, some carriers will charge you a per minute overage access fee. These out of area charges apply even if you have a one or two year cell phone contract. More and more people are taking advantage of the benefits associated with Wi-Fi roaming. If for example, you subscribe to your own Wi-FI provider, Wi-Fi roaming means you can use your username and password to access a different Wi-Fi service on another network without the hassle of signing up for the second Wi-Fi service. Under this scenario at months end, the service bill will show Wi-Fi roaming charges incurred from use of an additional Wi-Fi provider. This is a huge advantage, if you dont want to sign up with 20 different Wi-Fi providers every time you go to a different access point. Use the same username and password to access the partner Wi-Fi network. Who are some of the Wi-Fi providers that have roaming agreements? Spotting a hotspot is easy, simply click on one of the 3 databases above to find a free wi-fi public gateway access point near your area. Fatport, a Vancouver based wi-fi provider uses roaming agreements with other Wi-Fi providers to allow Fatport subscribers access to over 4000 hotspots in North America. I recently found out that I could buy a 24 hour pass to access a Fatport wi-fi hotspot for only $9.95 and only $299.95 for the entire year. |
