Wi-fi: How do you eat yours?

Wireless internet access is booming and nowhere more so than in public spaces such as airports, cafés, pubs and hotels.

During the past year, wi-fi usage worldwide shot up 44 per cent and the UK was blazing a trail with 75 per cent growth.

Want Fair Wi-fi?

Check out silicon.com's campaign calling for a better wi-fi deal for all. Find out more here.

The UK's most popular wi-fi venue is Heathrow Airport and research out today revealed almost half (49 per cent) of all public wi-fi access worldwide is consumed at airports. Cafés and other retail outlets come second, accounting for 29 per cent of global wi-fi usage, and hotels are third (23 per cent).

However, when it comes to spending most time online, hotels are a clear leader with the average user spending more than two hours online during the average session.

Want to log on at the airport?

Check out atlarge.com for peer-reviews of connectivity at the world's airports.

The US is predictably top of the wi-fi tree - accounting for 59 per cent of the world's usage - but more surprising perhaps is the UK in second place, accounting for 11 per cent of all wi-fi usage and beating countries such as Germany, Japan and Singapore.

London is also the number one city in the world for wi-fi usage, beating cities such as Singapore, New York and San Francisco. (See full list below, as well as the list of the top 20 airports.)

The findings from iPass, based on its own user-base, reveal the extent to which people now rely on wi-fi - especially the world's population of business travellers accessing wi-fi in hotels and airports.

A spokesman for iPass said: "User education has been a driving factor [in the growth of wi-fi] as people began to see the benefits of getting connected wherever they go."

Making that happen is a goal shared by silicon.com. As well as currently running a Fair Wi-fi campaign, to highlight the issue of hotels ripping off customers who need to stay connected, the team behind silicon.com recently launched atlarge.com which allows users to share their ratings and reviews of connectivity at the world's airports.

Top 20 wi-fi airports

Top 10 wi-fi cities*

*minus airports and cafés

Tables provided by iPass.