Is Blanket Wi-Fi Coverage On The Horizon?

When I first saw this story from Popular Mechanics about new bus stops that would offer free Wi-Fi in San Francisco (in 2013, anyway), I immediately thought of the CrunchPad. Remember how I said that a web-app only device wouldn’t do well until free wireless access was more ubiquitous? Well, that time is coming. How long before people start clamoring for Wi-Fi on public buses? If Bolt Bus can offer this and still keep prices low, surely it wouldn’t be hard to implement on a larger scale? In-flight Wi-Fi isn’t so rare anymore. The last bastion of connection-free space is underground, and even that’s not universally true. Geeks like me (and Gizmodo’s Dan Nosowitz) dream of the day when wireless is as easy to find as a public bathroom. (Note that I did not say a clean bathroom.) When the connection at the bus stop smoothly transitions to the one on the bus then smoothly transitions to the one at the office. I’m willing to suffer a few dead spots – elevators, for instance, need not have a signal – but only a few. I can see myself, tablet tucked into the crook of my arm, working on documents or reading books or surfing the web or answering email without pause, without worry. Also, if we can help it, without cost. Constant mobile broadband connectivity is a current reality as long as you live in or near urban areas and stay on street level. But the cost isn’t worth it for everyone. And since it’s been pointed out that U.S. cell phone users are paying up to five times what European consumers are, sooner or later something has to give. Will the tablet revolution make the carriers rub their hands in anticipation of more money or make consumers demand lower costs for services? It would only take one carrier and one tablet offering decent mobile broadband rates to shake things up. Or maybe mobile broadband providers will be caught by surprise when blanket Wi-Fi cuts them out of the picture altogether. Who is going to change the game? CrunchPad, iPad, or some other yet-to-be-announced piece of mobile awesomeness? Mobile Broadband, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, or other? It’s too early to call it, but not too early to get excited. Right?