WeFi, creator of what it claims is the world’s largest community-based global wi-fi network, has released the first of a series of quarterly reports on global wi-fi usage. Titled Wi-Fi Analytics Report: An Analysis of Global Wi-Fi, the report includes both statistics and analysis from WeFi on a variety of issues related to wireless internet, including statistics on wi-fi users over various mobile devices and mobile operating systems; cellular data offloading unto wi-fi networks; average duration of use when a user is connected to a public wi-fi hotspot; and wi-fi internet usage mobility.
The report covers data usage over full-size notebooks, netbooks, and mobile devices using Symbian or Android operating systems. The data is based on information gathered from over 56m wi-fi access points in WeFi’s database of hotspots around the world. WeFi acquires the wi-fi access point data by aggregating the wi-fi usage statistics of nearly 5m mobile devices and laptops where the WeFi client software is installed. WeFi says its database represents more than 10 per cent of the total estimated wi-fi access points across the world.
One interesting finding of the report is that on mobile platforms, a high proportion of sessions last less than five minutes. WeFi says this is no real surprise, since smartphone users are likely to be accessing the web quickly on the moves, while browsing the web on a laptop is usually done while sitting somewhere.
But while over 70 per cent of wi-fi sessions on Symbian devices last les than five minutes, for Android, the figure is much lower, at 30 per cent. In addition, over 30 per cent of Android sessions last 20 minutes or more. 
WeFi says this is down to the connectivity scheme of the Symbian operating system, which sustains the wi-fi network connection only as long as a particular application is using it. This is different from the wi-fi
scheme on Android, where a wi-fi connection that was initiated either manually by the user or by an application, remains open until it is specifically closed.
“As internet use becomes increasingly mobile, with smartphones, netbooks, and new devices being used in libraries, coffee shops, universities and hotels, there is an increased interest among mobile operators, wireless internet providers, as well as average users, in studying just how and where users are connecting,” says WeFi chairman and CEO, Zur Feldman. “Leveraging our number of users and our large database of access points in over 220 countries, WeFi has been analyzing the available data and we are excited to share this information with the public.”
To download the report, including charts, click on the link below.
