06 January 2010

40% Of Wi-Fi Access Points Recorded In The US
Are Unlocked, Compared With Only 25% In Europe

WeFi Inc., creator of the world’s largest community-based global Wi-Fi network, announced today the initial results from analysis of data collected by the company documenting the percentage of secured, or ‘locked’ Wi-Fi access points versus those that are ‘unlocked’.

According to the data, based on just under 50 million Wi-Fi networks recorded in WeFi’s database of hotspots worldwide, the United States has a higher percentage of ‘open’ Wi-Fi hotspots – access points that are unlocked and do not require a password – than Europe.

While 40% of Wi-Fi access points in the United States are unlocked, only 25% are unlocked in Europe.

Within Europe, out of the top 10 countries in terms of Wi-Fi deployment, the most Wi-Fi friendly countries are Belgium and Norway, while the highest percentage of locked access points is found in Germany and Spain.

Another interesting property of Wi-Fi in different countries is the use of “captive portals” to moderate the entry of users into unlocked hotspots, which indicates the penetration of “managed hotspot” providers such as Boingo and Trustive as well as local public Wi-Fi providers.

Out of the top 10 countries in terms of Wi-Fi deployment in WeFi’s database, France has the highest rate of captive portals from the total un-locked spots:

According to WeFi’s data, a traveler would find a higher percentage of open hotspots in countries such as Thailand, Israel, Brazil, Argentina and the Bahamas as compared with both the US and Europe. Across the world, approximately 30% of recorded Wi-Fi access points are unlocked, while some 70% are locked (see chart below).

The data is based on information gathered from nearly 50 million Wi-Fi access points in WeFi’s database of hotspots around the world. WeFi acquires the Wi-Fi access point data by aggregating the Wi-Fi usage statistics of over 4 million mobile devices and laptop where the WeFi client software is installed. In all, there are approximately 450 million Wi-Fi access points worldwide, as estimated by the Intel Development Forum (August 2008). WeFi’s database represents more than 10% of the total estimated Wi-Fi access points across the world.

The initial data analysis announced today by WeFi is part of a larger report on Wi-Fi use, expected to be released in the first quarter of 2010. The report will include statistics on Wi-Fi user behavior such as average duration of use, statistics of Wi-Fi users over various mobile devices and mobile operating systems, further details about access points, and more.