A total of 4.9 million commercial WiFi hotspots were available round the world in 2012, according to ABI Research. It expects this figure to exceed 6.3 million by the end of 2013, an increase of more than 28%.
88% of these hotspots are currently in the Asia-Pacific region, 8% in Europe, 3% in North America and 1% in the other regions.
ABI Research notes that WiFi is now used by most smartphone, tablet and laptop users as a complement to 3G and 4G services because it’s often free. It also points out that fixed-line broadband providers are building their own WiFi hotspots in order to provide internet connections when their customers are away from home.