March 21, 2012
At Talking Points Memo, Carl Franzen looks at an innovative idea to help bridge the digital divide:
KeyWifi, an ambitious New York-based startup company, aims to help solve this problem by letting anyone who currently pays for wireless Internet access to rent out their connection to those who don’t or can’t afford to, for a nominal fee. It’s a peer-to-peer Internet renting platform.
“You want WiFi and it’s all around you but its locked up,” said KeyWifi CEO Adam Black, 48, at a startup presentation in Manhattan in early march. “Think of all the spare WiFi not being used all around you and the people who might want to use it. The digital divide is within 100 yards of where you live. That’s a problem.”
The company is currently working with Internet Service Providers in the hopes of launching sometime in April.