You sit at your local airport and proudly pull out your Macbook Air, ready to be the most portable traveler in the concourse; you check your WiFi and see the network “Concourse” pop up as available. To your dismay however, the airport wants $8 bucks on top of your extravagant fees just to fly. Will WiFi ever be free, or will capitalism impede progress?

After spending the day in 3 different aiports, I’m wondering the very same thing. Sure, I could pay for T-Mobile Hotspots, or just break down and shell out 8 bucks for a couple hours of internet usage; I just really feel like charging for wireless internet is on its way out.

There are two main problems standing in the way of WiFi shared by all, as I see it. First, there is the issue of security. As it stands, most of the population barely knows how to network their own computers at home, let alone secure those individual machines against outside attacks. Though technological savvy is spreading quickly due to business integration, the U.S. as a whole is just not ready for users to open their networks for everyone to use.

Second, there’s the very obvious issue of money. Most people don’t want to pay for internet service, only to have it clogged by others. High-speed costs in the U.S. are too expensive for what they offer; high-speed internet providers don’t provide consistent service, and companies like Comcast are currently working hard to limit customers’ access to the internet. Talk about impeding progress.

High speed internet needs to become standardized and consistent, and provided at prices that are low enough so customers don’t feel like they’re being affected by additional users on their networks.
Oh, and then there’s the issue of cable high speed versus dsl high speed versus fiber optic (we don’t speak of satellite). With multiple styles of service currently being used, the genius of U.S. country-wide WiFi access is lost, as speeds and quality would differ drastically.

Just look at Japan or other more technologically advanced countries; high-speed internet is so standard, citizens don’t give it a second thought. Quality and methods of service are fairly equal, so providers are forced to lower prices and increase the quality of customer support to retain users.

Unfortunately, capitalism is really what is standing in the way of technological advancement, as well as universally shared WiFi in the U.S. Providers will continue to nickel and dime the American public for as long as possible, and we’ll watch countries that aren’t as “advanced” as ours make technological leaps and bounds far past what we could dream of. How’s that for capitalism?

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Entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 12:11 pm under Internet, Opinion, Wi-Fi.

Read more entries by Triston McIntyre.
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