Global Public Wi-Fi Network Grows to 50 Million Worldwide Wi-Fi Hotspots

Wi  Fi hotspot roaming provider, iPass has announced its Wi Fi Growth Map just marked a major global milestone, surpassing 50 million publicly available hotspots, increasing by 80% since 2013

As an enhancement to the Wi-Fi Growth Map, a dynamic real-time assessment of the rapid growth in global Wi-Fi, iPass also unveiled the Wi-Fi Leaderboard, a scorecard that ranks countries based on the number of hotspots they have overall, as well where they stand with Wi-Fi availability in categories like in-flight and hotels. The leaderboard shows that France with over 13 million hotspots holds the top spot but that the United States is quickly gaining ground.

50 Million Worldwide Hotspots and Growing

Crossing 50 million worldwide public hotspots points to the growing strength of the global Wi-Fi network. The number of hotspots is expected to grow rapidly and to hit 340 million global hotspots by 2018. Today there is 1 Wi-Fi hotspot for every 150 people on earth. By 2018, there will be one Wi-Fi hotspot for every twenty people on earth.

"With the exponential growth in Wi-Fi and the fact that consumers show a strong preference for it, Wi-Fi is emerging as a truly global, roamable network," says Evan Kaplan, president and CEO of iPass. "An array of businesses see the benefits of providing Wi-Fi and are making investments in building out Wi-Fi infrastructure."

Top Three Connected Countries are:

At more than 13 million hotspots, the leaderboard is currently headed by France, which as a country invested early in expanding it's Wi-Fi network, followed by the United States at more than 9.8 million and then the United Kingdom, at 5.6 million.

The United States is expected to jump ahead to more than 32 million total hotspots by the end of 2015 and leapfrog France. The United States' growth is due in large part to community hotspots where broadband operators are converting residential customers to community hotspot providers at the rate of about 1 per second.

"Every household can be a part of the public Wi-Fi fabric, which is what makes Wi-Fi such a powerful and valuable network," continued Kaplan. "Any business and any residence can now provide access, making Wi-Fi the easiest way to expand access globally."

Source: cellular-news.com