In many markets, people and businesses with WiFi hotspots have began monetizing their idle internet bandwidth by sharing it with others via middleman service providers such as
FON. While the business model itself is a solid one where everyone wins, it is faced with technical hurdles. Unlike cellular ISPs that use 3G HSDPA technologies, where the size of a "cell" is much larger than the coverage area of a WiFi hotspot, and where moving between cells is seamless, with close to no drops in connectivity (providing there are no dead-zones between the cells), WiFi hotspots have the issue of logging out of one hotspot before logging into another.
This issue makes moving between multiple FON hotspots result in temporary connectivity loss, which can be unacceptable in some situations (such as downloading something important when moving in a bus). No less than the WiFi Alliance is taking interest in eliminating this technical hurdle, by working on what's known as "Passpoint". Simply put, WiFi Passpoint technology lets clients move between physical hotspots without renegotiation (security and DHCP), making the movement seamless, and resulting in little or no connectivity loss, again, provided there's no dead-zone between the coverage areas of the hotspots users are switching between. A novel concept, which will improve wireless internet service.