Public Wi-Fi in a death spiral

SBC communications, a major U.S. carrier and majority owner of Cingular Wireless, is jumping into the Wi-Fi “we will have 20,000 hot spots” game, along with Cometa Networks, which also promises 20,000 hot spots. SBC calls it FreedomLink. Jeff Belk, vice president of marketing at Qualcomm, the patent holder for all CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) chips, says, “At some point, you have to have a bit of skepticism.” I go one step further and say you have to have a lot of skepticism about all these promises to blanket the country with Wi-Fi.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: The concept of public Wi-Fi, with the possible exception of airport use, will die a slow death. I am forced to sit in an airport, so I might as well connect while I’m there. However, I won’t eat at McDonald’s, and I have no intention of finding one in order to get into my network. I’m also not looking for the nearest Barnes and Noble bookstore to do the same.