The Cloud, a leading provider of public Wi-Fi in the UK, released results of its annual analysis of Wi-Fi usage in the country. The Cloud said that its users have spent 78% more time on its public Wi-Fi service compared to 2013 with over 28 billion minutes spent online. The Cloud has more than 22,000 public hotspots across the country.
Public Wi-Fi service is becoming omnipresent in most towns and cities around the world especially in regions with high levels of mobile and fiber broadband penetration. According to a study by Maravedis Rethink, by the end of last year, the number of public Wi-Fi hotspots globally were expected to reach 47.7 million and by 2018, this number is forecast to grew by more than 7 times to reach 340 million.
The use of public Wi-Fi hotspots has risen dramatically over the last year on the back of increasing consumption of digital content. Streaming music and videos, e-commerce, general browsing and social media interactions have resulted in more bytes of data consumed both on fiber and cellular networks, and with widespread use of mobile devices, including tablets which come with a bigger display and easy navigation, more people are spending a lot more hours in a day engaging with online content.
Consequently, people start depending on internet connectivity regardless of their location, and with mobile data being relatively expensive for long hours of rich content consumption, Wi-Fi has become a natural choice for millions of users wishing to continue being 'online' as they move around and conduct their daily transactions. According to Maravedis, by 2018, 60% of planes and 11% of trains will boast Wi-Fi service and there will be an explosive growth in the number of community based ‘homespot’ public Wi-Fi hotspots, poised to reach over 325 million by the end of that tenure.
The increasing dependency on internet connectivity has also presented merchants and premises owners great monetization opportunities. Wi-Fi has already become a de-facto item on most restaurant menus and the choice of venue for those looking to meet up for personal or business reasons is now determined by the presence of a public Wi-Fi service. Wi-Fi network operators such as The Cloud are tapping into this demand and via its ecosystem of content providers and premises/merchant partnerships, are offering Wi-Fi connectivity to those on the go. Providers such as The Cloud boast millions of registered users who use their Wi-Fi services by visiting their extensive network of partners. At present, The Cloud has over 12 million registered users connecting for over 2 billion minutes a month at over 22,000 live locations which include top merchants in the UK such as the Marks & Spencer, Wetherspoon, Pizza Express, WHSmith, Greggs, Pret A Manger, Wagamama, Caffé Nero and Eat apart from pubs, leisure facilities, restaurants and mainline stations. These partnerships complement the existing agreements with mobile service providers who continue to leverage services provided by players such as The Cloud to offload their mobile data traffic and deliver a superior experience for their subscribers.
According to The Cloud, users still use smartphones the most to connect to its public Wi-Fi network, accounting for 89% of connections. At the same time, it noted that within the last year, there was a 49% increase in the use of Android smartphones while the use of tablets on its Wi-Fi network increased 21%.
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Roger Matthews, Commercial Director, The Cloud
The UK is a digital nation. We spend more money online shopping than any other country1 and almost 60%2 of us regularly access the internet from mobile devices. In business, the digital sector is now worth £71 billion to the UK economy. That means we spend a vast amount of our lives online and it is shown clearly in our new figures. This demand for mobile connectivity has led to a record number of consumers signing up to The Cloud, with the active user base growing from 9 million to now over 12 million, a 34% increase in the last year alone!. As rich media content becomes more popular, we expect 2015 to bring an increased demand for reliable, high-speed connectivity. Because of this, we believe tech savvy users will start auto-connecting to The Cloud network to save on data. We are an increasingly digital generation and the larger screens that tablets offer are well-suited to content-obsessed consumers who devour everything from movies to gaming. 2015 will bring more rich media, more streaming and more WiFi minutes than ever before. This is an exciting era in digital and the UK public are undoubtedly embracing it.
