he Internet from just about any location on the planet. "People will come to expect con- tinuous connectivity in the way they currently expect to find electric lights wherever they travel," says Martin Weiss, chairman of information science and telecommunications at the University of Pittsburgh. The past few years have been an extraordinary period for the hotspot market. Hotspots offer an inexpensive way for service providers to drive sub- scriptions for an increasingly mobile but data-reliant workforce. The number of worldwide hotspots grew from under 2,000 locations to over 12,000 loca- tions in 2002, according to the Scottsdale, Arizona-based market research company In-Stat/MDR. In most regions, hotspot deployment growth contin- ued strong throughout 2003. Much of the hotspot growth in 2003 resulted from carriers and other large players entering the market. Several European service providers are expected to become more active in the hotspot market in 2003, and providers in the Asia Pacific region will continue to demonstrate a high level of interest. The North American market will be largely impacted by the realization of Project Rainbow. Project Rainbow, a nationwide hotspot network, is supported by AT&T, IBM, and Intel-backed Cometa Networks. The arrival of 802.11.b "Wi-Fi" wireless has given today's PC users a small taste of what a true "smart home" will be like. Tomorrow's home networks will go beyond file and Internet access sharing to provide wall-to-wall control over home entertainment, information, communications, and environmental and security systems. "We are all going to have a home server, just like the furnace in the basement," predicts Brian Costello, president of Supernova, an Internet consulting company located in Addison, Illinois. "Our computing devices will be tied into that server, along with our refrigerator, microwave, and heating, cooling, and security systems. 3.2 WLANS TO COME Beyond today's Wi-Fi 80211.b technology, additional 80211.x standards promise to make wireless communication f