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France kicks UK into third place for public Wi-Fi hotspots

US takes second spot, and Asian giants loom

The UK is ranked third in the world for publicly available Wi-Fi, with one hotspot per 11 people, according to research released on Monday, but France leads the way, while the US steals second place.

By 2018, the number of UK hotspots will increase to one per five people, according to Wi-Fi provider iPass.

The number of global hotspots will explode by 2018 to over 340m (or one hotspot for every 20 people), from the current 47.7m (or one hotspot for every 150 people).

This is in part due to the growth in residential hotspots, with every second household in the UK set to be a public Wi-Fi hotspot by 2018, as companies such as BT encourage people to share their home connections, said the report.

Europe has the highest concentration of Wi-Fi networks, with 50 per cent of global coverage. However, over the next four years Asia will overtake it to become the continent with the densest coverage. By 2018, the UK will get bumped to seventh place for coverage, as China, Japan, and South Korea are expected to overtake it.

Currently, China has five times more commercial Wi-Fi hotspots than any other country.

"The growth in community hotspots is taking public Wi-Fi from the cities to the suburbs," said Peter White, co-founder of analyst firm Maravedis Rethink, which conducted the research on behalf of iPass. ®

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