Hotspot (Wi-Fi)

A hotspot is a physical location where people may obtain Internet access, typically using Wi-Fi technology, via a wireless local area network (WLAN) using a router connected to an internet service provider.

Public hotspots may be found in a number of businesses for use of customers in many developed urban areas throughout the world, such as coffee shops. Many hotels offer wifi access to guests, either in guest rooms or in the lobby. Hotspots differ from wireless access points, which are the hardware devices used to provide a wireless network service. Private hotspots allow Internet access to a device (such as a tablet) via another device which may have data access via say a mobile device.

Public access wireless local area networks (LANs) were first proposed by Henrik Sjödin at the NetWorld+Interop conference in The Moscone Center in San Francisco in August 1993. Sjödin did not use the term hotspot but referred to publicly accessible wireless LANs.

The first commercial venture to attempt to create a public local area access network was a firm founded in Richardson, Texas known as PLANCOM (Public Local Area Network Communications). The founders of the venture, Mark Goode, Greg Jackson, and Brett Stewart dissolved the firm in 1998, while Goode and Jackson created MobileStar Networks. The firm was one of the first to sign such public access locations as Starbucks, American Airlines, and Hilton Hotels. The company was sold to Deutsche Telecom in 2001, who then converted the name of the firm into "T-Mobile Hotspot." It was then that the term "hotspot" entered the popular vernacular as a reference to a location where a publicly accessible wireless LAN is available.

ABI Research reported there was a total of 4.9 million global Wi-Fi hotspots in 2012 and projected that number would surpass 6.3 million by the end of 2013. The latest Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) Industry Report outlines a positive scenario for the Wi-Fi market: a steady annual increase from 5.2m public hotspots in 2012 to 10.5m public hotspots in 2018. Collectively, WBA operator members serve more than 1 billion subscribers and operate more than 15 million hotspots globally.

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