Wireless carriers, network vendors, smartphone makers and technology companies have been embracing Wi-Fi as key parts of their corporate strategy for a variety of reasons. Some, like Sprint (NYSE: S) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) are using Wi-Fi to expand and improve coverage. Huawei is using it to help sell more phones. And for Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), it's likely a way of making their respective digital services stickier and more accessible. Wi-Fi hotspots are increasingly being aggregated together to form a rudimentary, patchwork, nationwide wireless network. However, some of the companies that are doing the actual work of aggregating those hotspots, including iPass, Boingo Wireless and TowerStream, don't have much to show for their efforts--at least, not yet. Yet Wi-Fi still remains a growth market and offers opportunity as carriers look to offload traffic. What will become of the Wi-Fi aggregators? Find out in this FierceWirelessTech special report.
