The benefits of WiFi are indisputable: instant, convenient Internet access, wherever you are, whenever you please. But for it to deliver on its potential to dramatically increase work productivity and enhance business practices (and profits), it needs to be available to a lot of people. Not just in terms of having as many hotspots as possible—but making it cheaper.

Take Lina, a Filipino teacher on a scholarship grant in NYU. Given the cost of living in New York, the small allowance she receives, and the huge part the Internet plays on her daily tasks—writing papers, checking the online instructions posted by her professors, and communicating with friends and family she left back home—free WiFi could take a huge load off her shoulders.

And Wibiki— a subsidiary of wireless broadband pioneer Speedus Corp.—
may have the solution for her. On January 6, 2006, it announced that its “new software for a free Wi-FI world” was now available on its website.

The Beta version of Wibiki for Laptops, and Wibiki For Routers and Linksys, allows users to get their WiFi fix round the clock. It’s a big victory for the campaign to make it easier (and safer!) for people to share Internet access, and thus keep it free. Wibiki’s made this possible by shifting the cost of WiFi from users to advertisers. So yes, you do have to deal with a few pop ups here and there—but for Lina and many WiFi users, that’s a small price to pay.