WiFi hotspots provide wireless Internet access for devices such as laptops and phones. They are found in various businesses and public areas, and can be free or require payment. The idea was proposed in 1993 and has since become widespread, with many cities offering WiFi services. Users can access open or closed networks to browse the web, check email, and more.
WiFi® hotspots are places with wireless Internet access that anyone with a laptop, notebook, cell phone, PDA, or other wireless-capable device can access. They are usually found in places such as coffee shops, but can be offered in a wide variety of different businesses and in many public areas, some even in entire cities. Internet access at a WiFi® hotspot is sometimes free, but often those who want to use it have to pay for a wireless access plan.
Brett Stewart first proposed the idea of WiFi® hotspots at an Internet conference in San Francisco in 1993. While the term “WiFi® hotspot” wouldn’t be coined until several years later, the seed had been planted. Not only have companies begun researching the technology to make public WiFi® possible, but several start-ups have also been created whose corporate goal was to build and maintain the equipment necessary for WiFi® hotspots to become more widespread.
Today it takes a relatively small amount of equipment to create a WiFi® access point around which a hotspot can be created. Due to its relative ease, some examples of businesses that commonly offer Internet access are libraries, airports, hotels, schools, universities, and many other places. Many cities have even become WiFi® hotspots, offering broadband services across much of the city itself, and there are even more cities becoming WiFi® hotspots today.
When a user with a wireless device is in a WiFi® hotspot, there are two ways services can be offered. The most popular of these is using an open public network, where anyone with wireless access can use the service. Alternatively, closed public networks use a so-called hotspot management system that offers services only to users who pay for a few minutes or have access through a subscription. Once logged in, a user can do just about everything they could do on the Internet at home: check e-mail, browse the web, do business on their company website, and more, although some of the closed public networks can also limit what is available through their WiFi® access point.
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