Which City Has the Most Wifi Hotspots?

Which city has the most Wi-Fi hotspots? If you are like me, you’d suspect New York or San Francisco.

Actually, as of this writing, the city with the most Wi-Fi hotspots is Vienna, Austria with about 165. San Francisco and New York are in second and third place, respectively.

Within the United States, Portland, Oregon is considered the most “unwired” city on a per-capita basis.

In determining the most “unwired” American city the study considered: the number of hotspots, or commercial Wi-Fi access points; the number of nodes, or public access points; the degree of Internet access available via cell phone companies’ networks; and finally, how many people in the city actually use the Internet regularly.

Portland came out on top on a per-capita basis, with 130 active public access nodes, or 7.4 per 100,000 people. This gave Portland nearly five times the number of the next highest place—Austin, Texas, with 1.5 nodes per 100,000 of population.

Interestingly, the Portland Wi-Fi hotspots include 140 nodes put up by the all-volunteer Personal Telco Project, which does not charge for access. These free hotspots put Portland, Oregon off the charts for public Wi-Fi access.