But doesn't this hurt private Internet providers? Free wifi damages their ability to succeed in the marketplace.<p>I said that tongue-in-cheek but that is the counter argument to free or municipal wifi projects.
Hong Kong already does this. Practically all their pay phones are WiFi hotspots operated by PCCW. In fact, it's hard not too find a WiFi hotspot within 100m in Hong Kong.
Random event: I just walked by one of these (Grand Central-UN area) on my way to the library today and said "Wow. I wonder why I didn't hear about this before...or see it before?" So I started looking for other payphones/WiFi-stations and didn't see one.<p>Great idea.
I always wondered why telcos haven't made a business model out of this. It is too late now that 3g/4g is pervasive and fast enough, but for a period of about 7-8 years they could so easily have wired DSL to all those idle pay phones around the city and I would easily have paid $10/month (or more) to have Wifi connectivity when I was out and about.
I'm wondering what some of the legal consequences would be if a project like that were implemented in Europe.<p>In Germany (and other countries), if you as a private person do not secure your wi-fi, and someone else piggybacks on it to do something illegal (say, download pirated data) you are liable.<p>What is the situation in the states? If the legal situation is similar, does it make a difference if the open wi-fi is provided by a city rather than a private person? Obviously it wouldn't be piggybacking when the free wi-fi is intended to be used by others, I wonder if that makes a difference. Also, could ToS be used to avoid the liability issue for a city?<p>Also, in the EU, ISPs are required to store the connection data of all customers for six months. Would a city that provides free wi-fi be considered an ISP and thus have to store all connection data too?
If people like the government setting up wi-fi hotspots, would people be open to sharing their wi-fi hotspots (securely) for the chance to roam across other wi-fi hotspots? As in, blanket the city in a grass roots network.<p>Love to see cities that care about their users..er citizens.
I don't get the 'free' bit. I mean a pay phone was just that an opportunity to plug into the communication network for money, why not a 'pay hotspot' ? Now I could see that NYC could create a token system which would make using a licensed paid hot spot practical, but don't see what they are trying to achieve with free access here.