Free wireless internet for the masses

Wireless internet access has been a commonplace for most of us netizens for quite some time. The concept of an internet cafe where people can register for a computer to use from the cafe counter. Now it is the age where people bring a cell phone with wireless capability, a laptop or your itouch and have a good time accessing the internet while still able to hold a decent conversation with the person opposite you, whom you are having coffee with.

In Singapore, the 3G community had been hard to catch up with the wireless access set up at most cafe and public places around the island. This can be due to the fact that the audience that mostly used wireless (I am talking about any type of access to the internet other than using a fixed cable.) internet are people like us whom uses it for daily activities like check the mail, updating friendster, write a forum or simply to chat online. When you are doing daily net activities like these, you usually would be thankful enough to just use a free wireless access. Never mind that you sometimes get disconnected halfway ( for my case now, I can’t even log in to the public library that I am in. It may be just due to my lousy network device since people around me are happily using their sub-2kgers) through you chat or the pesky advertisements that comes along with the free access (well, nothing is really free without a reason right?)

From the trend i see these days, wireless access penetration rate may easily match the boom period of the cell phone, or even the antique pager. When you see that the rate of adoption is faster than the rate where people feel comfortable reading their favourite novel under the cable-bounded table lamp, you know that people don’t like to be physically bounded ( except for those sad-masochist type maybe? Hmm..)

I can see that in the near future, people will not need to ‘log in’ any form of wireless internet access. The users may just need to make a one-time registration of their MAC address to the service provider. Users will be logged in every time and anytime when their wireless device is near an access point, and with roaming capability.

One thing for sure, advertising companies will be the first to adapt.

Ok I just got connected.