Sharing wireless Internet in urban neighbourhoods

This research investigates the neighbourly sharing of household Internet provision. It studies the potential use of wireless networking technology to provide shared broadband access among urban residential households, in contrast to existing single-house service provision, in order to improve cost accessibility, promote community involvement, and enable mobility. The objective of this research is to determine the feasibility of wireless fidelity signal sharing among current users of broadband and wireless technology, who would be both the prospective customers of this service and the users of the system. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted with several dozen users of broadband and wireless technology to explore their attitudes and perceptions. It was found that based on what participants value about and expect from their Internet connections and providers, it may be possible to deploy a shared service. However, participants expressed stringent requirements, such as reliability and quality of service, for any proposed sharing-based system.