Next Big Thing For Wi-Fi?

Maybe so. Check out what is happening over in California. Of course by now you are well up to speed on Wi-Fi. From a novelty just a few years ago, where everyone was scurrying from hotspot to hotspot, Wi-Fi access is now becoming almost ubiquitous.

And here is what is worth noting. What’s going on in California oftentimes has its way of working over to the rest of the country and even the world. In this case, what’s going on is all about what looks to be an innovative way to provide Wi-Fi Internet access. This is great news to many since you probably have noticed that data download times are often many times faster over a good Wi-Fi network than through your cellular phone company data plan.

This new approach to providing Wi-Fi Internet access is coming from the town of Mountain View, California. There, a company by the name of Veniam is making a very strong case that they have a technology to provide blanket Internet access throughout a widespread area.

The solution offered up by Veniam starts with a city’s existing Internet infrastructure. Once a city’s Internet infrastructure is clearly mapped out and understood, then the company engineers step in and install proprietary routers. These routers, which have been called super wireless routers by some, are plugged directly into the city’s Internet infrastructure. Each of these plugin points become a extremely localized hotspot.

But here’s the thing to note: because these so-called super routers actually broadcast on a frequency reserved for transportation system, they range covered is expanded all the way out to 1,600 feet in all directions. Yet that is just one part of the Wi-Fi system from Veniam.

Another key component of the Veniam system are the mobile hot spots. These mobile hot spots are mounted atop city buses, garbage trucks, even police cars. These mobile hot spot routers receive the broadcast from the stationary hot spots along the way, strengthen it a bit, then rebroadcast the Wi-Fi signal out in real time. Although the engineering behind this technology is actually quite complex, the end result is complete Internet coverage over a wide spread area.

What some have referred to as the Holy Grail of Wi-Fi access is on the edge of becoming a modern day reality. Perhaps sometime in the very near future, your cell phone carrier won’t even bother offering a data plan with the service since Internet access will be always there and always on.