The Register with two related wi-fi developments. BT will wholesale its Openzone public wi-fi service and Vodafone will allow business customers to pay for wi-fi access via their phone bills.
Public wi-fi will remain a geeky novelty until network density and accessibility improves and that requires some real business economics. With all due respect to those who think public wi-fi will remain free (the ‘salt and pepper’ argument), it’s going to take an old-fashioned value chain to get wi-fi into enough public places any time soon.