Wi-Fi growth fastest in Asia

NEW YORK: The number of public wireless computer networks known as Wi-Fi will surpass 200,000 in five years, up from 28,000 locations this year, with the fastest growth in Asia, according to a new report.

So-called Wi-Fi hot-spots have gotten a string of major corporate endorsements in recent months, making airports and even McDonald's Corp. restaurants into locations where a computer user can connect to the Internet. All that is needed is a special card in their laptop or handheld device.

While North America has the largest number of hot spots currently, with 12,400, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to overtake North America by 2008, according to a report to be released later on Thursday by technology research firm Allied Business Intelligence.

The report refers only to commercial hot spots, and excludes free, publicly accessible locations such as in parks and on college campuses.

Analyst Tim Shelton said providers of Wi-Fi networks will need to come up with roaming agreements with rivals, removing the frustration of users who now need to register with several vendors.

Such growth in Wi-Fi, one of the few bright spots in an otherwise weak technology marketplace, will also be an increasingly large revenue source for the owners of such networks. Shelton predicted revenue from hot spots will rise to $3.1 billion in 2008 from $59 million this year.

Users generally pay a monthly or daily fee to tap into Wi-Fi networks.

Perhaps the two biggest endorsements for Wi-Fi came from Intel Corp., which is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to market its new Wi-Fi-enabled Centrino microchips, and Starbucks Corp., which has installed Wi-Fi networks in many of its coffee shops in the United States.

© Reuters