Ever keep an eye on " On the Waterfront " ? That ’s the one with Marlon Brando bet a has - been loot - fighter . The plot revolve around a union of stevedores on bang in the 1950s . But go down to a twenty-first hundred port , and you wo n’t see anybody summate around a longshoreman ’s crotchet anymore . In fact , you wo n’t see many dock-walloper at all . What happened ? Containers . In 1955 atruckingentrepreneur from North Carolina named Malcolm McLean had a very bright melodic theme . Instead of employing a plenty of stevedores to take and unpack box and crates of all dissimilar sizes and frame , it occurred to him that you could just throw everything into a few big metal boxes . Make all those boxes the same size and indestructible enough that you may load them directly from a truck to a ship and back to a truck again with the wide-eyed expedient of a Harold Hart Crane . The resultant role : a revolution in globular swap [ author : World Shipping ] .
Why are we talking about containers when we ’re supposed to be talking aboutWiFi ? Are we off - topic ? Only a slight . Because containers and WiFi share a very important historical factor — Coopetition . That ’s a fancy business neologism referring to a exercise whereby rival companies cooperate for reciprocal benefit . When Malcolm McLean had his brilliant perceptivity , he realized it would work easily if he did n’t patent the idea , but made it available to everyone . If everybody could match on an international standard for the size of container , trade would increase . His rivals would gain , but so would he . Stevedore jobs would be file under collateral damage .
The history ofWiFigoes back to 1985 when a forward - thinking engine driver at the Federal Communications Commission ( FCC ) promoted the musical theme of publish certain bands of the radiocommunication spectrum to communications entrepreneurs . These were striation fresh by receiving set or TV . Vendors soon begin educate proprietary technology to take advantage of the newly available bandwidth , but it read them a while to realize they ask to work together . There was n’t much point in the whole thing if one type of equipment could n’t communicate with another type .
In 1988 a group of tech party formed a citizens committee to create an industry touchstone . It engage intimately 10 years of wrangling to get all the interested party to agree on the raw standard , and in 1997 the first one was publish . Two years later on the standard was refined and simplify , and companionship began producing devices that were compatible with the technology . But it still needed a name . Branding consultants were consult . " FlankSpeed " was rejected . So was " DragonFly . " " WiFi " sounded like how-do-you-do - fi , which in turn remind customers of how any CD could work in any participant disregardless of who fabricate it . " WiFi " won the naming competition [ rootage : The Economist ] .
Two X later , ethernet cable length have , like stevedores before them , seen their population dwindle . But with the decline of cable and the rise of WiFi has come a woozy step-up in internet usage . There are so many thing we can now do with our wireless devices that our usance habitually outstrips our data plans .
So where can we go to poach devoid wireless access ?
10: Parks
Back in the leaping of 2014 , Parks Canada announced it planned to install WiFi serving in a number of home parks across the commonwealth .
Uproar .
From sea-coast to coast nature lovers chime in to decry the desecration of the Canadian wilderness . Canada was thefirst country in the worldto establish a national park service , and now it was going to be one of the first countries to contaminate those unexploited lakes and muckle ranges with the never-ending presence of social media , electronic mail , texts and , tingle , memes . Could visitors not even spend a few days in the pristine back land without posting clifftop selfies ? Was man so addicted to its devices ? What about those who desire to spend time in the woods incisively because they call for to distance themselves from the ubiquity of , well , everybody else ?
Parks Canada clarified that it was n’t about to put hotspots on mountaintops or distant lake - shoring . The backcountry would persist WiFi - free . Free WiFion the other hand , would be installed in a few visitant center as an experimentation . It was part of a strategy to lure more millennials to the large outdoors [ source : Parks Canada ] .
The turmoil cash in one’s chips down . Parks Canada restfully deploy the hot spot , and no more has been say about the matter . It ’s too former to say whether the juvenility are work into the scheme or not .
In the U.S. , national parks remain off limit point to WiFi , but every other kind of green seems to have fully succumbed . You could send a telecasting feed of yourself walking through Central Park in NYC live , if that were in any way interesting . And from California to South Carolina , from Texas to Ohio , State Department parks have gone hog - wild for destitute wireless connectivity .
9: The Baltics
Your data programme is maxed out , and if your supplier has n’t already pulled the plug , its slowed your association to prehistoric dial - up speeds or menace to bill you extortionate penalisation for exceed your limit . Get yourself to the Baltics .
When the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union ’s hairline sharply receded , the sudden glare of modernity heat up the Baltics . They shook themselves , take a look around and rather than crawfish out , jointly decided to gun their locomotive into the twenty-first century .
To get to the Baltic , take a left wing at Poland and head north by northwest . Your first stop will be Lithuania , which , by some metre , has been judge to have the degraded public WiFi in the world [ source : Eadicicco ] .
Next stop , Latvia , where a telecommunications fellowship scream Lattlecom sic up more than 2,000 free WiFi hotspots across the country back in 2013 . A pair of 15 - second advertising burst up an time of day of use before you deport on with your Twitter provender . This should come as no surprise because Latvians have famously jump into the digital revolution with unmatched gusto . According to polls , one in every five Latvians would volitionally give updessertor inebriant for entree to gratis WiFi [ reference : Bhatia ] .
Farther north , Estonians are also massive fans ofconnectivity , and they ’re not afraid to trumpet the ubiquity of free WiFi throughout the Carry Nation . No unpolluted backcountry for them ! distant beaches and forests are on-line . In Estonia , internet admittance is considered a human right field . After all , this is the home of Hotmail and Skype [ source : Visitestonia.com ] .
8: Buses
Remember " Speed " ? Keanu Reeves before he was Neo , and Sandra Bullock before anybody knew who Sandra Bullock was . " ' snuff it intemperately ' on a passenger vehicle " was the pitch contrast that sold the high-pitched - construct thriller . Remember " Die Hard " ? Never mind . The jalopy is the relevant part . A psychopath ( Dennis Hopper , typecast ) telegraph a bus to set off if it dip under a certain speed . He ’s grumpy about his pension or something . The motive does n’t matter ( clearly it did n’t weigh to thedirector ) .
The doubtfulness is , have late developments made " f number " outdated ? What recent developments ? WiFi baby , WiFi . That ’s veracious , free WiFi on urban center bus . It ’s find . Actually , it ’s happened . As of December 2014 , the Golden Gate Transit fleet of 180 buses has free WiFi throughout its religious service arena from San Francisco to Santa Rosa to Western Contra Costa County .
It ’s a thing . Kansas City ( Missouri ) , Minneapolis , Atlanta , Montreal , Toronto and Vancouver are among the cities experience on card the WiFi express .
So , " swiftness " ? Is the movie WiFi compatible ? Probably yes . If you ’re go to use a plot that ludicrous , surely a yield squad with such a tower disinterest in plausibleness could concoct a digital sea rover with the hack skills to remotely shut down a wandering WiFi hotspot and ruin everybody ’s day .
7: Trains
stay with the theodolite theme , let ’s take a feel attrains . If buses can do it , surely rail can , too . After all , when it come to connectivity , train tracks were the net of the nineteenth century . And yes ! Across Europe and North America , geartrain system do propose barren WiFi . In January 2016 , in India , Google began carry out one of the universe ’s big public WiFi project . The plan is to provide barren WiFi in more than 400 railway line stations across the country [ generator : Balachandran ] .
Meanwhile , the oldest underground system of rules in the world , theLondon Underground , aka The Tube , has WiFi everywhere . Paris , too . Toronto ’s baffle it at some stations . Same with Montreal . But if you ’re looking for a truly high - technical school connected underpass system , head for Seoul where they ’ve stick it nailed with WiFi being the least of their founding for improved transit [ source : Kim ] .
And what effect would all this have on the plot of " The Taking of Pelham One Two Three " ? recall Walter Matthau ? Remember ? Long before his " Grumpy Old Men " phase , he was a bad-tempered , middle - of age , New York City theodolite cop drive to handle a pack of evil subway gamey - jackers .
6: Submarines
all right , subterranean WiFi is cool , but what about subaqueous connectivity ? If you ’re in the depths eye - to - eye with a colossal calamari through the hepatic portal vein , it ’s kind of a drag if you ca n’t post that pic to Instagram . But remember that WiFi is basically aradio signal , and unfortunately , radio signal fail underwater . Fear not ! A sub - aquatic net firm ( yes , there is such a thing ) refer Subnero is in use working out the contingent of an alternative plan somewhere in Singapore .
It works as follows : Subnero installs nodes underwater at intervals of several miles ( km ) . The node web transmit and receives signals from surface buoys that , in turn , intercommunicate with satellites or cellular telephone avail . Your sub can then send out healthy heart rate to the net via the nodes and buoys .
There are just a few minuscule glitches to work out like , for instance , the fact that sound travels through weewee 100,000 times more slowly than radio waves travel through air . Not precisely broadband speeds ! But Subnero carry on undeterred , convinced that the solutions are just around the recess . In the nigh future they ’re hop submarine WiFi will avail pull off all kinds of tricks , such as piloting aquatic drones or augmenting realness for diver [ source : Kingsley ] .
5: Supercars
Say you do n’t feel like you may justify shelling out $ 2.8 million for a Koenigsegg One:1 . Sure it’sblisteringly quickand has an outrageous mogul - to - free weight proportion ( one to one , as advertised by the name ) , but it came out in 2015 and it already seems a scrap date stamp . After all , the 2016 Koenigsegg Regera comes with a built - in WiFi hotspot , it ’s got an even better power - to - weight proportion , it ’s a nag - in hybrid and it only costs $ 2.3 million — a buy if it signify loose WiFi for the life of the car [ source : Oagana ] . Is it really free ? Not sure , but it should be .
Fine , okay , if megacars are off the mesa , WiFi does n’t have to be . Audi ’s batting order features4Ghotspots that can address as many as eight unlike devices .
And if Euro luxury is n’t your matter , it turns out GM ’s start radio receiver from the Corvette to the Cadillac . Most Fords are WiFi - enabled now , too . Chrysler ’s hotspots circularize to a 150 - foundation ( 46 - m ) r , which is where the complimentary part come in for you WiFi squatter [ author : Martell ] . Next time you ’re at the beach , search the parking lot for a Chrysler and see if the owner has locked access to the system . If not , you just might be capable to twitch from your towel .
4: Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji , that outright recognizable volcanic silhouette , has come to be symbolic of Japan itself . Thousands of painting and photograph depict it , and poem commemorate it . Hundreds of thousands of masses climb it every twelvemonth . And now those climber can post the experience to Facebook as they go . Yes , Mount Fuji has free WiFi from top to bottom . And for all the uncommitted and obvious jokes about social media , the truth is that WiFi - turn on the mountain makes it safe forclimbers . They can supervise the atmospheric condition as they go and make parking brake call option even when out of range of cell divine service .
If you ’re heading to Fuji for the free WiFi , keep in mind that the mountain is clear to hikers only from July 1 through former September . Also , you get barren wireless access for just 72 hours after you link up , which should give you heap of prison term to get up and back down .
surprisingly , at 12,389 feet ( 3,776 meters ) Fuji ’s WiFi is n’t even the high in the earthly concern . Since 2010,Mount Everesthas sported hot spot as in high spirits as 17,000 feet ( 5,181 meters ) [ source : Griffin ] . Does that make it the high WiFi in the world ? It depends on how you define " world . "
3: International Space Station
Remember Chris Hadfield ? He was that Canadian astronaut who overtop theInternational Space Stationback in 2013 . By the time he came back down to Earth , some were calling him one of the most illustrious astronauts sinceNeil Armstrong . How did that go on ? Free WiFi . TV made Armstrong illustrious . The net made Hadfield a star .
Calling it the " ultimate wireless connector , " NASA installed WiFi on the ISS in 2010 [ germ : NASA ] . Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer was the first to live on tweet from space , but it was Hadfield , three years later , who used the access to best effect . A Twitter exchange with William Shatner was the gun trigger , and within a few months , Hadfield had 800,000 followers . His videos from zero - gravitation have been viewed more than 20 million times , and his cover of David Bowie ’s " Space Oddity " was a worldwide phenomenon [ source : Mirani ] .
gain admittance to this particular innocent WiFi connexion , however , is no trick . In Hadfield ’s grammatical case it required getting a degree in engineering , then becoming a belligerent airplane pilot , then a test airplane pilot and then finally jumping through endless hoops to modify as a NASA astronaut . Becoming an spaceman is great , but it ’s no guarantee that you ’ll actually end up in space . That requires luck , eloquent Russian and a talent for being the person with just the right qualification at the correct time [ source : chrishadfield.ca ] .
2: Everywhere, Part 1
Elon Musk , Mark Zuckerberg , Larry Page and Sergey Brin are all competing to save the world by running it . It ’s no coincidence then that they ’ve all announced their aim to provide liberal WiFi to the entire planet . There are 4.8 billion masses who still ca n’t get on-line . That ’s a portion of potential customers .
Facebook ’s scheme is to launch a jillion solar - powered drones over the sky of removed rural locations in Asia and Africa where people have no access code to the web . top-notch - precise lasers will beam the signal from drone to lagger , make a sort of aeriform internet . They ’ve already built a prototype drone planer out of carbon fiber , and despite have the wingspread of a 737 , it weigh less than half the weighting of a Prius . It ’ll shoot signals down to jail cell towers from an altitude between 60,000 and 90,000 feet ( 18,000 and 27,000 cadence ) , in high spirits above commercial-grade zephyr dealings . Speeds will allegedly be 10 gigabits per second — that ’s even fast than fiber - optic overseas telegram [ source : Vanian ] .
And ifGooglehas its room , there ’ll be a mess more refulgent going on . The working solution is , again , to go up . But the lookup engine colossus is n’t put one over around with the mesosphere . Google ’s plan is shoot 180 satellites into low field so they can spread out the connectivity revolution . They ’re also talking about using drones and hot air balloons to augment the web [ source : Zolfagharifard ] .
Not to be outdone , or rather , to outdo everybody else , as usual , Musk is also planning to shoot enough satellites into space to provide global WiFi access . But whereas Facebook and Google speak of complimentary access , the Tesla Motors CEO would wish to turn a profit . And rise , once again , that he ’s the most ambitious mankind on or off satellite , the profits he ’s banking on will be earmarked for the construction of a city on Mars [ germ : Metzger ] . It almost goes without saying .
1: Everywhere, Part 2
All those plans for satellite - wide wireless local area internet are cool in a sci - fi way , but there ’s actually a much simple , cheaper and maybe even better option available . commemorate that WiFi broadcasts on a limited isthmus of the electromagnetic spectrum . That ’s because the spectrum is carefully apportioned by a given country ’s regulative body . Because they occur first , radio and TV have proprietary manipulation of the proficient channels . But think of all those local UHF channel that are n’t being used . UHF , or extremist - high frequency , signal are in the spectrum between 400 and 700 megacycle . If providers could broadcast WiFi at those frequencies , the signal could go for miles , right through walls , trees , truck or whatever was in its room .
Some clever researchers at Rice University descend up with a way to transmit information that does n’t even postulate a specific channel . Their system automatically detects which UHF channels are n’t being used at a given mo and jumps on it , switching midstream from distribution channel to convey to avoid interference if necessary . full of all , you do n’t necessitate any Modern fancy equipment to incur the signaling , just your old television set , the one that expend an antenna [ source : Mack ] .
Meanwhile , the inquiring minds over at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency , substantially cognize as DARPA , are cogitate over a Borg - alike labor that makes the dreams of Elon Musk sound positively antique . After all , this is the chief organization behind the innovation of theinternet .
One of their latest big idea is something they call a " cortical modem . " One daylight they go for to be able to create a $ 10 equipment the size of two stacked nickels that could be implanted into your nous as a lineal neural user interface . Never mind retinal displays , this thing could leave a display right inside your optic lens cortex . But draw a blank all the other implication ( hyper - augmented world , for one ) ; with this gizmo in your brain , you could talk to somebody IN YOUR MIND . That ’s ripe , DARPA want to create electronic telepathy . They ’re even talking about telekinesis , which could work well withan internet of things[source : Rothman ] . The Force will be with us all ! This is WiFi in its unfounded , ultimate form . Will it be free ? In the future , everything is .
Lots More Information
I ’m quondam enough to have grown to adulthood before the internet exact off . WiFi still seems like thaumaturgy to me . I commend sit at a data processor in one of my university ’s IT centerfield and being astonished to receive real - time message from a admirer who was spend a year in Russia . DARPA ’s cortical modem sounds ridiculously place - agey now , but in a few decades it could be the fresh normal . On the other hand , there ’s no auspicate what technologies will take off . Who would have gauge that texting would be so pop ?
