Spanish Firm Building Private Wi-Fi Offload Network in New York City

Another Spanish firm wants to build new networks from Wi-Fi networks, both private and public, and will test the idea in New York, N.Y.

Gowex, which says it already provides Wi-Fi networks in more than 80 cities globally, wants to combine public Wi-Fi and private access Wi-Fi services from mobile operators and businesses to create seamless mobile data coverage for consumers.

Called We-2, the new service will launch in December in New York with an initial network of more than 2000 Wi-Fi hotspots across New York,  with plans to further expand aggressively across the busiest corridors of Manhattan, Queens and The Bronx.

The company also hopes to create We-2 Wi-Fi hotspot networks in more than 300 cities by 2020.

The business model is what makes the initiative different from Fon.

Apparently, We-2 will be a network created and sold to mobile service providers who want Wi-Fi offload capabilities.

“We are giving operators the chance to improve mobile data access for the customers and offload traffic from congested networks,” said Carlos Gomez Vendrell, CEO We-2.

The idea is not new. Cable operators in both the United States and United Kingdom have considered creating wholesale Wi-Fi networks whose customers would be mobile service providers, not end users.