Martin Cooper, father of the cell phone, says 802.11 impractical for coverage: Sure, he's got a point, but the fellow is obviously opinionated and relying on a specific internal model of Wi-Fi hot spots that are monolithic.
One company "says they will have an 802.11b site within a five-minute walk in the city and a five-minute drive in the suburbs," Cooper said, bristling a bit. "Know what that sounds like to me? A telephone booth."
I can't make 11 Mbps connections to a DSL or T-1 line at a telephone booth, however.
I hear more and more about people driving up to closed (or open) shops and employing drive-by Wi-Fi: powering up the laptop, performing their tasks, and moving on. They'll have to enlarge parking lots next, not seating, at many cafes.
Anybody remember the old A&W Root Beer Drive-Ins or something like it? Maybe they'll make a comeback as a Wi-Fi Drive-In - free Wi-Fi access with the food and drink.
Here in Arizona there is a fast food chain (Sonic) that is very much like the old A&W drive-ins. You park, order from your car using a menu board/intercom and they bring your food to you. If they had Wi-Fi you could order from a webpage!
"I hear more and more about people driving up to closed (or open) shops and employing drive-by Wi-Fi: powering up the laptop, performing their tasks, and moving on."
Been there and do that when I can. As full time RVers we do not have regular access to the internet so we often trawl for hot spots in the towns we visit. So far we've been fairly successful in finding at least one AP that we can get on. They are often not 'public' APs but rather unprotected business or residential WLANs.