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USA Has More Open Wi-Fi Hotspots Than EU

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the my-password-is-passw0rd dept.

Mark.JUK writes "Some 40% of wireless (Wi-Fi) Internet access hotspots in the USA are unlocked and do not require a security password, which compares with 25% in Europe; according to WeFi based statistics. Across the world, approximately 30% of recorded Wi-Fi access points are unlocked, while some 70% are locked. Nice to see everybody taking security so seriously, then. It should be perfectly possible to 'share' Wi-Fi while using WPA or WPA2 security measures at the same time."

4 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. USA! USA! USA! by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, number one, baby!

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  2. This isn't a bad thing. by vasqzr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Good! The Internet was founded on free and open access.

    For the first year or two I was using a (very limited) free dial-up shell. Otherwise I would have never been able to get online. I live my access point open, I've had hundreds of users over the last few months.

  3. Re:Maths Lesson by bakawolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    WEP?

  4. An alternative to completely open. by Gribflex · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I moved to France last year and was pleasantly surprised at the ISPs attitudes towards sharing wifi.

    My provider, Free.fr, by default enables guest access on my router. However, it's not completely open.
    In order to access the connect, you must enter your account details (login and password), and then you are given access to a limited connection.
    Should you not want to share your connection with other people, you can easily disable this feature; but doing so also disables your account from being able to access roaming wifi.

    I really love that the community sharing feature is enabled by default.
    As long as I'm willing to share my connection with other subscribers, then I get access to their bandwidth when I'm away from home. And, as one of the larger providers in the area, this means I have access from just about anywhere I go.