Grand Haven, the State of Michigan, the USA

It is the first city to offer citywide Wi-Fi coverage that was put to use in 2004, since 2003 the net was in a test run and had about 300 users. Its operator is Ottawa Wireless Inc. The population of the city is 12 thousand people.

Mountain View, California State, the USA

The city is located in the centre of the Silicon Valley. Google headquarter is located here. The population of the city is 70 thousand people. The net of transmitters belong to Google. It is rather complicated to provide citywide Wi-Fi coverage because of its location in the hilly country. However 95% of the city is covered with Wi-Fi. The total area of the city is 31,2 square kilometers. The service was put in use in 2006; by 2009 it had more than 16 thousand users.

Taipei, the capital of Taiwan

The population of the city is 2,6million people, 90% of them can use the service. The net started to work in 2006 and had 4000 access points, by April, 2007 it had 4200 access points. Two companies took part in its designing — Q-ware Systems and Chunghwa Telecom Co. Smaller operators provide Wi-Fi coverage in cafes and restaurants. The declared speed of transmitting information is 500 Kbits per second. But the project failed. By the end of 2006 250 thousand people were expected to use it but in April, 2007 the net had only 30 thousand users.

Singapore

The net started its work in 2006 and now covers the most part of the city. The project (Wireless@SG) was initiated by the government. Three operators provide the connection — iCell, QMax, SingTel. By summer of 2008 the net had 7200 access points. The amount of users that spend at least three hours in the Net is 850 thousands. The total area of the city is 710 sq. kilometers; its population is 4, 8 million people.

Luxemburg

In Luxemburg the government together with Enterprise des Postes et Télécommunications initiated the citywide Wi-Fi coverage project named HotCity in 2007. By the end of 2009 the whole area of the city is expected to be covered with Wi-Fi and the amount of transmitters will reach 400. The area of the city is 51,3 sq. kilometers.

Minneapolis, the State of Minnesota, the USA

In 2007 the citywide Wi-Fi coverage project was started. It was supposed that the net would be paid and the access would cost 20 dollars per month for natural persons and 30 dollars — for legal persons. By 2008 the most part of the city was covered with Wi-Fi but there were problems in the western and eastern parts of the city. The coverage is to be total by the end of 2009. The operator provided connection is USI Wireless. The area of the city is 151 sq. kilometers; its population is 373 thousand people.

Pacifica, California, the USA

The operator is Pacific Net Company. Now 2000 people are useing the service. The area of the city is 32,8 sq. kilometers, its population is 40 thousand people.

Oulu, Finland

The citywide Wi-Fi coverage project panOulu appeared in 2004. Nowadays the network covers the most part of the city. The area of the city is 584 sq. kilometers; its population is 137 thousand people.

London, the UK

The area of the city is 1707 sq. kilometers, its population is 7,5 million people. In 2008 RSA Agency called London as ’the most wireless city in the world’. It counted that there were 12276 access points in the city that is an absolute record. But 55% of the detected hotspots belonged to home users. The number of transmitters has grown by 72%. The City is covered with Wi-Fi totally.

New York, the USA

According to RSA Agency New York is the second-most wireless city in the world. It is 3 thousand access points behind London. For 2008, their amount grew by 45% though 18% of them belong to home users. The area of the city is 1214 sq. kilometers, its population is more than 8,3 million people.

The main competitors of Wi-Fi nets are 3G technologies and WiMax (it is sometimes called 4G technologies). In contrast to them the Wi-Fi net has some problems at the work with moving objects and its transmitter`s radius is less than 3G and WiMax offer.