Everybody wins with WiFi

Posted on July 24, 2012

We at Devicescape encounter many questions about our solution and more specifically our Curated Virtual Network of public WiFi hotspots.  It’s understandable given the fact that WiFi offload is a relatively new solution for the wireless industry.  And from a consumer perspective, the understanding of WiFi is rather limited in scope.  Most people tend to think that WiFi is only available at work or in your home or in selected establishments like coffee shops and universities.  That is only the tip of the iceberg.  It’s everywhere. After attending many tradeshows and conferences related to WiFi and the telecom industry as well as participating in many media inquiries, I believe the most common question asked to Devicescape is, “How do you collect and assemble the WiFi in your network?”  And of course the follow up question is always along the lines of “Are you inappropriately using someone else’s WiFi connection?” Believe it or not, the second question is the easier one to answer and that is “No”.  We are not inappropriately using or stealing anybody’s WiFi.  All the WiFi in our CVN is public and free which by definition is meant for the public consumption.  Although we can identify tens of…

Curated Virtual Network

Posted on July 20, 2012

There seems to be a big misunderstanding about the way Devicescape's network is curated, and the types of location that are included. The venues that are part of Devicescape's curated virtual network are places like the cafés, bars, restaurants, hotels, libraries, hospitals, transit systems and retail establishments that installed free wifi for the benefit of their customers. Sitting at a bar, the person sitting next to me responds to the popup advising them of the availability of open wifi on their iPhone by connecting to the bar's network. Are they freeloading or leeching? Of course not! The bar owner installed the free wifi for their customers to use. My Android phone, running our software, was just one step ahead in that it automated that selection, getting me the best data connection it could find, rather than bugging me about it. They're not called smart phones for nothing. And at the same time, it checked the quality of the connection to make sure I got a good experience. As a consumer, I win by getting a faster, free connection to the Internet that doesn't eat into my cellular data allowance. The carrier that is paying us for the service wins by…