Steve Jobs' Vision of Widespread Free Public Wi-Fi Guest Networks Yet to Take Hold

[MacRumors]

In a commentary piece arguing for users to open up free guest networks on their Wi-Fi access points to the public, Re/code's Walt Mossberg shares the story of how Steve Jobs saw such networks as the future of Internet access, supplementing cellular networks to allow for faster and broader access for users.

Mossberg notes that Jobs envisioned the open Wi-Fi networks during development of the original iPhone, which was hampered by a "lousy, sluggish cellular-data network." An open Wi-Fi network built on the cooperation of both business and private citizens who were wiling to share their Wi-Fi connections with strangers would have addressed this problem by offering another connectivity option for iPhone users.

His idea was to get as many wireless router makers as possible to build in a "guest network" option -- essentially a second Wi-Fi network, securely walled off from the rest of the home network, and with its own name. Then, he hoped that the industry would encourage people to share their bandwidth with strangers via these guest networks. That way, a smartphone user could walk around, moving from one Wi-Fi hotspot to another, without logging in -- much like people using cellular data move from one cell tower to another.

While there are certainly potential issues with security and bandwidth hogging by guest users, Mossberg argues that these issues are not insurmountable, and in fact some companies have made strides in this area. On a micro level, Apple's AirPort base stations have supported guest networks since 2009, and on a broader scale, some Internet service providers such as Comcast have been working to turn customers' home routers into Wi-Fi access points available to other customers as a public network.

Use of Wi-Fi to supplement cellular coverage is also growing, with one example being T-Mobile's effort in the U.S. to route phone calls over a more reliable Wi-Fi network instead of the cellular connection. Apple is adding iPhone support for the feature as part of iOS 8 later this year.

Article Link: Steve Jobs' Vision of Widespread Free Public Wi-Fi Guest Networks Yet to Take Hold

 

[theheadguy]

That's not the only thing he envisioned that has yet to take hold.

 

[Orlandoech]

Seems... secure.

This will never happen. Not many, if anyone, will ever risk their bandwidth due to malicious people.

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Quite a few things he envisioned have yet to take hold, like the Apple TV.

Apple TV or an Apple TV set?

 

[winston1236]

I immediately disabled "Guest" network on my Comcast router. Strangers are not welcome to slow down my connection!

 

[ZMacintosh]

the concept is novel...but no way with all these security breaches into secured networks...that "wall" between guest and private home network could be just as accessible.

 

[Tintxo73]

This is already done by a company called fon

https://corp.fon.com/how-it-works

 

[AppleDude]

No Brainer

For most of my adult life, I've lived in congregate housing and I've always opened up my WiFi as a public service and never had problems. Yes, I know--I've been lucky.

Now that many routers are dual band, I am able to keep a secure network for myself and an open one for guests.

I do this for one reason--I deplore waste. No need for someone to spend $40/month for access when a neighbor has surplus capacity.

 

[tasset]

Love the idea, in a tree hugger hippie community sort of way. But the reality is as a property owner by sharing your network with passerby's you open yourself up to being shutdown by your ISP from an MPAA DMCA complaint or worse have the feds raid you because someone downloaded child porn on your network. And as the passerby you run the risk of someone on a public network setting up a honeypot to sniffing packets for personal information or a retailer collecting information on you and selling it to marketers/data miners. Heck I am sure ISPs will plant FUD to deter people from doing it too.
There's just too many human hurdles to put trust in this.

 

[winston1236]

For most of my adult life, I've lived in congregate housing and I've always opened up my WiFi as a public service and never had problems. Yes, I know--I've been lucky.

Now that many routers are dual band, I am able to keep a secure network for myself and an open one for guests.

I do this for one reason--I deplore waste. No need for someone to spend $40/month for access when a neighbor has surplus capacity.

I agree to a point, but I live in a building with probably close to 60 networks just within range of my unit. Thats too much risk with that many people plus their friends.

 

[Gaspode67]

It does exist

In some countries, this sort of system already exists. It's called Fon. Here in the UK, it's branded as a part of BT, who are one of their partners. It's a dedicated separate guest network limited to a max speed of 512k, so I hardly notice it on my 46Mb download speed (assuming anyone's using it in my small town). It's been handy on the times when the phone signal's been poor but there's been a wifi spot active.

 

[xmichaelp]

For most of my adult life, I've lived in congregate housing and I've always opened up my WiFi as a public service and never had problems. Yes, I know--I've been lucky.

Now that many routers are dual band, I am able to keep a secure network for myself and an open one for guests.

I do this for one reason--I deplore waste. No need for someone to spend $40/month for access when a neighbor has surplus capacity.

You are a good person. I wish I lived near you.

 

[HyperX13]

My neighbor had his WIFI open because he didn't know jack about IT. Some perv found this open wifi and would download and upload child porn.

Let's just say it took my neighbor over 1 year to clear his name. And the only reason he cleared it is because my security cameras caught the perv that would sit in his little car at at the curb.

 

[ppc_michael]

Use of Wi-Fi to supplement cellular coverage is also growing, with one example being T-Mobile's effort in the U.S. to route phone calls over a more reliable Wi-Fi network instead of the cellular connection. Apple is adding iPhone support for the feature as part of iOS 8 later this year.

...what? Don't iPhones support this already? I've been doing it for a while now with Tmobile and an Android phone.

 

[4614429]

ISPs UPC and Ziggo in the Netherlands have been rolling this out for over a year now. They're calling it WifiSpots. A secondary network is built-in to all Wi-Fi enabled cable modems and linked to a central authentication system. If you are a customer, any WifiSpots-enabled access point accepts your credentials and allows you to connect to the internet. Both companies claim to have over 500.000 WifiSpots-enabled APs operational already.

It's a good idea technically but it won't work. Because privacy and free choice. Especially not in the Netherlands were internet connectivity is probably one of the most liberal.

Oh and you can easily turn it off if you have such a modem. And it doesn't work on a Wi-Fi router from a third party (which you should use) because Linksys, Netgear, Asus, D-Link and TP-Link (95% of the market) aren't stupid enough.

 

[dannyyankou]

Google is sorta working on something similar to this.

http://bgr.com/2014/04/25/google-fiber-wifi-plans-revealed/

 

[mbh]

My cable modem data transfer quota is way too low to let random people use it up for free. (Not to mention the security and liability issues.) No thanks.

 

[KdParker]

Really.

People working together for the common good, and not one of them will be a self serving thief. I just don't have that much faith in people.

 

[Alphabetize]

I thought Google was working on a project like this. Those Wi-Fi balloons or whatever?

 

[icanhazapple]

For the people freaking out over the security issues over sharing wifi with strangers - Comcast, for example, requires the other person to provide their Xfinity credentials. They also know your social security number, so they've verified your identity. They can certainly differentiate who was browsing what on a wifi hotspot, if a warrant was provided.

Security and identity for public wifi use can be established in 2014, this has already been solved with some ISP deployments.

 

[thedeejay]

For most of my adult life, I've lived in congregate housing and I've always opened up my WiFi as a public service and never had problems. Yes, I know--I've been lucky.

Now that many routers are dual band, I am able to keep a secure network for myself and an open one for guests.

I do this for one reason--I deplore waste. No need for someone to spend $40/month for access when a neighbor has surplus capacity.

You're one of those lucky ones with a surplus. I have 250GB a month and 90% of the time I hit about 230GB and sometimes go over. If I did have unlimited however, I would do the same.

 

[winston1236]

For the people freaking out over the security issues over sharing wifi with strangers - Comcast, for example, requires the other person to provide their Xfinity credentials. They also know your social security number, so they've verified your identity. They can certainly differentiate who was browsing what on a wifi hotspot, if a warrant was provided.

Security and identity for public wifi use can be established in 2014, this has already been solved with some ISP deployments.

Very true, but Comcast doesn't guarantee the speed will be maintained with guest users on your network.

 

[kalsta]

I like the idea. If people everywhere suddenly latched onto the idea of real community, it could happen. The chance of that happening in most westernised cities? About as likely as Apple providing free wi-fi to the city of Cupertino I'd say.

 

[Flight Plan]

I pay over $130 usd per month to Verizon for my cell and data usage. i pay over $120 per month for my home phone and internet.

I'll share, but only if there's SOME discount in it for me. Until then, my internet portal is closed, because it's already too slow for what I'm paying now anyway.

 

[Four oF NINE]

Could such a thing work? I wonder how many people would participate

 

[pacohaas]

Need better multi-network Wifi chips first that are able to connect to more than one Access Point at a time. If you've ever walked through a large location with multiple APs like an airport and hoped to have a podcast download complete without erroring out, you know the problem. If the mobile device could connect to all the networks (including cellular) and use them in a tiered or shared fashion to stream data up/down, then this would actually be a viable solution. I think that needs to be solved before it's worth having wifi everywhere that would be useful while walking anywhere.