Stuart sets out a powerful scenario - Wi-Fi Hospitality :  

"So here's the start of a scenario has to impact on the numbers above.  Let's call it "Wi-Fi Hospitality".  If you have broadband... it's simply impolite not to provide Wi-Fi in your home or business.  If you keep me waiting in a waiting room at the doctors office.... let me at least have my link.  As for Starbucks --- pity their deal with T-Mobile.  Nothing like a hospitality brand that is no longer a good host! I want and expect free access.

There was once a time when visiting where we asked politely to use someones phone. Now the script is written --- please excuse me a minute... I must go and make a call (cellphone).  There is no returning  our guests to the "polite" ---- do you have Wi-Fi?  Do you mind? It may be as offputting as asking --- "Can I use your computer?" --- there is a level of privacy and lack of indepedence involved in that request. 

So to be THE HOSPITABLE HOST hook up Wi-Fi so the next time a friend enters your house and their PDA smiles... WiFi inside you get to hear the "Cool Dude - I'm connected! Thanks!" You may just expand your network and in the short term impress your friends! "

Brings forth visions of connected homes, hotels, restaurants, airports, dental clinics with long periods of waiting, an emergency situation in a rural area with poor connectivity otherwise .... just keep them out of cinema halls :)!

A long way before Stuart's powerful scenario will be a reality in India.  Yet it will happen.  A few positive signs in India :

Rajesh Jain's blog, Emergic.org (nice discovery) has a post in March - WiFi Leap for Rural Communications where he reports on two articles about a breakthrough by Media Lab Asia in WiFi. Their researches have managed to get 3 Mbps+ across a 37-km (22 miles) hop in rural India, as part of its Digital Gangetic Project.

Even the government can't fight privatization anymore - MTNL which is our largest telephone company, predominantly owned by the government, a joint sector company, is now talking about entering into new services like WiFi and digital signature services to build new revenue streams. The company will be setting up wireless hot spots at places like airports, upmarket restaurants and entertainment plazas in Mumbai and Delhi. The hotspots will work on 802.11b wireless technology, and will enable notebook computers and handheld devices to automatically connect to the communication network when brought in the hotspot area.

Prasanto Kumar Roy tells us all about Why WiFi is so Hot in an article at Dataquest.  Where he says : "WiFi isn’t just big "solutions": If you’ve heard a vendor pitch, or read a story about wireless campuses, you’ve probably said "that’s not us". You’re probably right. You have a wired LAN, which you have no reason to replace. WiFi lets you quickly and cheaply extend your existing network into places that people pass through or visit for short periods—conference and meeting rooms, for instance. It keeps them connected, and productive.  WiFi isn’t expensive: For someone setting up a small office, it costs about the same as a wired network. If you have five laptops users and a DSL connection, all you need is an access point and five cards—under Rs 40,000. And it’s far more convenient."

I attended a conference  held to explore ways in which Information Communication Technology is being used as a tool to empower the poor.  The conference was held in a small town called Baramati.  There's an institute there - VIIT which has WiFi - it was an amazing feeling being in a little town with such advanced technology.