Public Wi-Fi hotspots to grow 4-fold by 2015

NEW YORK, USA: The amount of public hotspots, Internet (WiFi) worldwide grow more than quadrupled to 5.8 million in 2015, spurred by rising demand for connections on smartphones and tablets, an industry survey showed on Wednesday.

Telecom operators see Internet hotspots essential for unloading of wireless data traffic, which is expected to grow 26-fold over the next five years, according to Cisco, such as the use of video on mobile devices tops.

The study by research firm Informa has been commissioned by the telecommunications industry lobby of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA).

"The results show that we are on the verge of the golden age of public Wi-Fi hotspot deployments continue to grow," WBA president Chris Bruce said in a statement.

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator by subscribers, plans to establish one million hotspots in Japan and the second largest mobile operator KDDI plans to the 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots to grow to 100,000 within six months.

"Fixed operators, broadband services outside the home and office, and supports Wi-Fi busy mobile broadband network," said Bruce, who is also CEO of BT Open Zone.