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There’s going to come a time in the next 10 years when wireless networks are available pretty much everywhere in the world. They’re also going to be free or so cheap you won’t even think about the cost of using them. In fact, I should imagine that for Ben, my one year-old son, he’ll never know any different.

Until something like WiMAX comes along, however, ‘hotspots’ need to be created. Up until now these have had to be done via an infrastructure, something like a home network, school or coffee shop. Via Scobleizer I found a link to Joiku who have just announced JoikuSpot. This allows mobile phones running the Symbian S60 operating system (like my Nokia N95) to share its 3G data connection via wi-fi.

This is potentially immense. Mobile data hotspots! At present there’s no encryption which is a bit dangerous, but I’m very much looking forward to seeing this develop. Unfortunately, I can’t test it at the moment: I cancelled my data connection completely after Orange kept overcharging me. I’d be interested to hear what others have to say, however.

Download JoikuSpot for free here.

Posted: February 9th, 2008
Categories: Technology
Tags: cellphone, hotspots, Internet, JoikuSpot, mobile, networking, Nokia N95, Orange, S60, Scoble, Symbian, Technology, Wifi, WiMAX, wireless