Author(s):
Elizabeth A. Lyon* - Member
Christian Sandvig, PhD - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Abstract:
"Wi-Fi" Wireless Internet devices are low-powered radios that anyone can buy without a government license. The literature on wireless communication assumes that the diffusion and use of unlicensed transmitters like these is unpredictable. In this thinking, a license is an agreement about what a user will do with a radio. Without such an agreement in advance there must be chaos, causing headaches for the regulation of the electromagnetic spectrum. While Wi-Fi use is a series of individual decisions, this study finds that overall use is predictable, and yet it differs in important ways from reasonable expectations. By constructing Wi-Fi data collection devices, researchers surveyed Wi-Fi networks in three Chicago neighborhoods over a period of three years (N = 851,939 observations). Spatial statistics, exploratory spatial data analytics, and Monte Carlo simulation indicate that there is significant local clustering of Wi-Fi activity. While the previous scholarship on unlicensed systems and Wi-Fi has worried about free riding and interference as major constraints for how the system grows, we find no support for these concerns. For instance, the existence of plentiful unencrypted Wi-Fi in urban areas has been forecast to suppress further deployment (if you can free ride on your neighbor's network, why buy your own?). At the same time, interference between Wi-Fi devices is an expected barrier to growth (above a density threshold, it has been predicted that Wi-Fi should stop working due to congestion). We find neither of these effects, and we discuss the implications of this for public policy.
