Automatic Mobile Phone Public Hotspot Access?

Some 37 communications companies around the world have signed up to test Hotspot 2 Wi-Fi roaming and billing. 


Aircel, AT&T, Boingo Wireless, BT, BskyB (The Cloud), China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, DOCOMO InterTouch, Everything Everywhere, FON Wireless, Gowex, Indosat M2, HK CSL, KDDI, iBAHN, KT Corporation, Meteor Network, NTT DOCOMO, Oi Wi-Fi, Orange, PCCW Mobile, Portugal Telecom TMN, SK Telecom, Shaw Communications, Smart Communications, Softbank Mobile, StarHub, Swisscom, Talk Talk, TeliaSonera, Telefonica, TIM Brasil, Time Warner Cable, Tomizone, True Corp., Trustive and TTNET are among the firms participating. 


The Wireless Broadband Alliance says the trials of "Next Generation Hotspots" will test interoperability and performance of new gear that will give users easier access to a far greater number of public Wi-Fi access points around the world.


The trials will take place in the fourth quarter and employ the first generation of Wi-Fi "Passpoint" equipment which the Wi-Fi Alliance today announced it will start approving. The WBA expects the first NGH deployments to take place in H1 2013.


Next Generation Hotspots will allow users to gain access without the need for user names and passwords, while also allowing operators to establish relationships with each other so their users can access a wide variety of hotspots in their own country and around the world. 
HotSpot 2 might also have the potential to be disruptive, though, some might argue.


It has  been some time since anyone seriously argued that public Wi-Fi hotspots could be a  viable alternative to mobile infrastructure. But at least to some extent, HotSpot 2 could create WiFi networks extensive enough, and easy enough to use, that some contestants could offer Internet access either as a non-mobile but outside the home service, or simply offload mobile traffic to the hotspots, as most of the mobile operators hope to do.