KeyWifi

Description

Paul Smith:

"Have you ever been out at a cafe, its wifi on the fritz, and looked longingly at the 13 other networks with little lock icons next to them? For most networks, only a fraction of their capacity is ever put to use, leaving a lot of excess capacity untapped.

The emerging collaborative consumption movement frequently utlizes the internet to enabling connections and exchanges. Never has access to the internet itself been the focus of a business. Until KeyWifi.

As KeyWifi puts it on its IndieGogo project page,

- KeyWifi is the world’s first web-based, peer-to-peer internet access platform, allowing individuals and small businesses to safely rent out their Wifi, opening up previously unavailable hotspots and turning our whole world into a potential “Wifi zone.”

That one phrase, “safely rent out their wifi,” could be all it takes to unlock people’s willingness to do such a thing. In an age of phishing, viruses, high profile hacking, giving people the security to share their unused bandwidth with confidence, at a profit, is enormous.

Here again, KeyWifi nails the larger benefit of their service:

- The social impact of the internet is obvious in promoting economic mobility, political empowerment, and freedom of information, with significant implications for the developing world. By making efficient use of community, underused infrastructure, and peer-to-peer technology, KeyWifi democratizes the internet, opening up thousands of high-bandwidth hotspots for low-income communities so that they, too, can participate in shaping the future." (http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/03/keywifi-opens-door-peer-peer-wifi-rental/)