Exploitation of public and private WiFi coverage for new business models

Abstract

The expected boom in wireless networking and the rapidly increasing number of private and public access points prepare the ground for additional - initially unintended - usage possibilities of this fast growing infrastructure. A first example is 'Location Based Services'. Since access points constantly broadcast unique, identifiable information like the MAC address, this data could be exploited for additional services. Because of the narrow broadcasting range of a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) cell, precise location information can be obtained at low cost. This could be used i.e. as a basis for LBS (push), or navigational services (pull). Since WLAN chips are integrated into more and more devices like PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) and mobile telephones, WLANs could be used for access to simple classic internet services like WWW or email as well as more sophisticated services like VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). This paper describes four exemplary possibilities of exploiting the WLAN infrastructure for additional services, provided that WLAN is almost ubiquitous in a coherent area. © 2004 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.