Mobile working Toolkit

100,000 Wi-Fi hotspots by the end of 2005

Jo Best silicon.com

Published: 27 Sep 2005 16:40 BST

The number of Wi-Fi hot spots looks set to break the six-figure barrier by the end of the year, according to analysts.

A new report from research firm Informa Telecoms and Media is predicting the number of Wi-Fi hotspots will reach 100,000 before the start of 2006.

The report also found that, at the end of the second quarter of this year, the number of Wi-Fi hot spots across the globe had already reached more than 84,000, with most new growth in the market for this quarter coming from the Asia-Pacific region.

However the fastest growth for the second quarter of this calendar year has been in western Europe, which now plays home to 42 percent of the world's Wi-Fi hot spots. North America remains the poor cousin of the Wi-Fi world with just 26 percent of global hot spots.

Despite the continuing boom in hotspots, users are apparently still scarce. A recent report by analyst house Gartner found that just one quarter of business travellers are using wireless hot spots.