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Devicescape Analytics: San Francisco Boasts Twice Amount of Available Wi-Fi of NYC

Devicescape Analytics: San Francisco Boasts Twice Amount of Available Wi-Fi of NYC

SAN BRUNO, Calif., Sept. 26, 2013- Pitting San Francisco against New York City, Devicescape today announced that locals and visitors to the City by the Bay are the true winners in finding and accessing Wi-Fi.

The new report, "San Francisco Trumps New York City in Wi-Fi," focuses on the availability of amenity Wi-Fi, access points and networks that are intentionally shared by businesses and other organizations and that make up the largest offering of Wi-Fi in most cities. The report reveals that, on average, amenity Wi-Fi is twice as available in San Francisco, with 47% of businesses offering it as opposed to 23% in Manhattan. The report explores each of the models of shared Wi-Fi adopted by businesses in both cities and examines the varying levels of availability and accessibility. It also introduces the concept of a "Wi-Fi tease," a case where a customer is confused by what appears to be a shared Wi-Fi network that is actually locked by the store owner.

Over the last six months, Devicescape compiled data from its Curator Service Platform, andCurator Client on smartphones along with local, on-the-ground measurements to reveal surprising statistics about the Wi-Fi landscapes in San Francisco and New York City. The data crowd-sourced from hundreds of millions of Wi-Fi connections across both cities explores the availability and accessibility of existing Wi-Fi, as well as the types of venues that offer it, how the public accesses it and more.

Highlights from the report include:

  • Twice as many businesses in San Francisco (47%) offer Wi-Fi compared with those in Manhattan (23%).
  • 50% of chains and 45% of independent stores in San Francisco offer Wi-Fi, only 24% of chains and 22% of independents provide this amenity in NYC.
  • Cafes lead the types of venues that offer Wi-Fi, with 75% in San Francisco and 55% in NYC helping customers get connected.
  • NYC is the bigger Wi-Fi tease with 32% of venues offering private Wi-Fi that seems to be shared, but is not made available for the public.
  • 54% of Wi-Fi shared in San Francisco does not require a password, while 41% of NYC's shared Wi-Fi is password free.

"There are several regional and city-wide initiatives where San Francisco and New York City are making great strides in offering Wi-Fi to the public, including major tourist attractions and outdoor locations," said David Nowicki, CMO of Devicescape. "But when it comes to business establishments recognizing the value of offering shared Wi-Fi to customers, San Francisco leads the way as the most Wi-Fi friendly city in this contest."

Devicescape monitors more than 250 million global Wi-Fi hotspots in real-time to deliver the industry-leading Curator Service to mobile operators, including Leap Wireless (Cricket), U.S. Cellular, MetroPCS (T-Mobile), C Spire, Republic Wireless, Intel, and Microsoft (deployed by Verizon) among others. These deployments validate the huge opportunity held in automatically connecting smartphone users to curated amenity W-Fi. The Devicescape Curated Virtual Network, which consists of more than 16 million quality-controlled Wi-Fi hotspots, is the largest such network of Wi-Fi hotspots in the world, putting Devicescape in a unique position to deliver on the always best connected vision.

To download the full report, please visit: www.devicescape.com/ecosystem/wi-fi-analytics