Is Web 3.0 Going to Mean User-Generated Internet Access?
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When colleagues from the US told us they could surf happily using their neighbors’ Wi-Fi connections, there was all-round skepticism. Wouldn’t the owner of the Wi-Fi connection get charged double? No, we were told, most broadband plans in the US operate on a flat rate (around $20 to $30 per month), and charges did not depend upon the amount of usage.
During a recent trip to Bangalore, I came across 12 hotspots during a 20-minute taxi ride from my hotel to my office – no wonder Bangalore is called the “Wi-Fi Hot Spot Capital of India” . I was able to latch on to around two of them from my notebook PC. After this, my skepticism about shareability of Wi-Fi connections vanished.
But, the next question that came up was, how does the Internet Service Provider permit this? After all, he is charging only one customer but multiple people are enjoying the connection.
After reading about FON, a new Spanish Wi-Fi aggregator startup, it appears that ISPs are looking the other way when people are sharing their Internet account.
FON is company advised by web maverick Niklas Zennstrom, the man behind Skype and Kazaa. Skype shook - and is still shaking - the telecom industry with free VoIP calls and Kazaa had earlier rattled the music industry with its music-sharing service. FON is leveraging the intrinsic openness and shareability of Wi-Fi by persuading people with home Wi-Fi connections to share access with fellow “foneros” within range. FON expects to aggregate one million Wi-Fi hot spots by the end of 2007.
This looks like user-generated internet access, as against the traditional telco-provided internet access.
How widespread can this coverage become?
Each hot spot provides coverage for around 50 feet. Assuming that they are spread out in the most widespread manner possible, FON’s network of one million hot spots will provide free Internet coverage for 50 million feet or 15,000 kms (9,375 miles). Considering that the earth’s circumference is around 40,000 kms (25,000 miles), this means we can expect up to 35% of the earth’s circumference to support free Internet coverage, just courtesy of FON.
As more FON-like providers set shop, we can expect to see free Internet access wrapping up the entire circumference of the earth many times over.
We are right now going through Web 2.0 typified by user-generated content. Are we beginning to see the first waves of Web 3.0 characterized by user-generated infrastructure?
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