FROM HOT SPOT TO HOTSPOT

It’s not easy to describe the first experience, but once you’re in it, you know it, you feel it, and the rush is undeniable. I’d like to call it "The Info-climactic Supernova Encounter", those moments in our lives when we sample new information technology for the first time, and we’re more liberated, more empowered, than any of our Homo Erectus forefathers could have ever imagined.

 I’m talking about the first time you ever downloaded a song for free on Napster. Or the first time you ever sent a text message, or took a photo of someone with your cell phone. Or bought a book on Amazon. Or signed in for a web-based email address. Or "accidentally" dropped in on a porn site.

 And I’m talking about the first time I ever experienced Wi-Fi technology at a restaurant not too long ago. In broad daylight I whipped out my laptop in such a state of breathless frenzy, with none of that crazy screeching I used to endure with dial-up, or those tangled cables from broadband. And there I was, online, downloading on Kazaa, checking my email, surfing Philstar.com, while gossiping with the others at the table and sipping an espresso, that I felt the "Info-Climactic Supernova Encounter" again.

 Aaaaah, the emotion, the flutter, the smile. I was so happy that I pronounced the transformation of the restaurant from "hot spot," meaning a place where everyone wants to see and be seen, to "hotspot," meaning a location where Wi-Fi technology is available.

 I don’t know why, but deep in my gut I knew I was standing at the cusp of something great. Wi-Fi, will eventually, inevitably, change lifestyles, and consequently, lives, forever, though right now, Manila is hardly a big, swollen hotspot the way cities all around the world already are. In Europe, more and more pubs are getting in on it, so you can have your Heineken while screaming at Beckham on the big screen and buying his latest skin care product on the Web. On Wall Street, bankers and stockbrokers are ordering Wi-Fi cards instead of fries to go with their Big Macs. In Korea, which has the world’s largest number of hotspots, you can go online anywhere while pickling your kimchi.

 To the unacquainted, Wi-Fi technology is pretty simple to explain. Your laptop must be Wi-Fi enabled, or contain a wireless LAN card, kind of like the SIM in your mobile. The place you’re at must have a Wi-Fi Access Point to transmit the broadband Internet wirelessly to your computer, kind of like a cell site. When the twain meet, you’re connected. When you have neither, you’re kind of like in what we’d call a deadspot.

 I remember clearly, around eight years ago, when I had just gotten my GSM cell phone, my mom used to yell at me when I’d text madly while we’d go malling, or when I’d have my phone right next to the water goblet over dinner. Will you please throw that thing away, Paula Marie, she’d holler, I have never seen anything so rude!!! Of course, my analog mother didn’t have SMS yet at that time, as this was light years before we taught them how to multiple-send their silly green jokes and Biblical passages. Well, Mom shouldn’t object to Wi-Fi now, since I personally believe that having a laptop by your pan-fried goose liver is infinitely less rude, as it allows a lot more interaction between you and your dinner mate. Just make sure everyone at the table is wireless too, otherwise you’ll make these offline wallflowers want to hang themselves.

 Anyway. I fearlessly predict that Filipinos will catch on to this sooner than we all think.  Right now, in Manila, Wi-Fi belongs to only very few in-the-know geeks, and enjoys a cult following cum snob appeal cum hip quotient. Thing is, believe it or not, access is still free – at Greenbelt and Glorietta hotspots you simply have to call *9910 from your Globe postpaid Handyphone and you’ll immediately receive a 24-hour password that’ll get you online in no time. At most Seattle’s Best branches you can buy an Airborne Access Wi-Fi prepaid card for P100 for one hour Internet use – a bit pricy, considering you can get it for free, but a worthy replacement for a magazine or a book or a dull companion while you sip your coffee.

 Just last week, at Rockwell Power Plant, I discovered, to my dismay, that there was only one hotspot in the entire mall, causing me to blurt out, "God, can’t we get some decent Wi-Fi in this country?" I had to catch myself in mid-sentence, realizing sheepishly that I am not entitled to Wi-Fi as though it were a birthright like clean utensils and service with a smile. Tee hee.

 So now I’ve decided to make a few pleas to the general public about this whole Wi-Fi phenomenon, because I feel that it is my civic duty to enjoin our countrymen to hop on this Wi-Fi bandwagon, or forever hold my peace. Ahem.

 To our mammoth telecom companies raking in billions in earnings each year, I ask you all to follow Globe’s lead and give out to your subscribers Wi-Fi access for free in the meantime, just as texting was once free eons ago. This would surely encourage hesitant but curious users to give it a try and get hooked on it eventually. You can capitalize on this later when you see how profitable it can be.

  To hesitant but curious users, I ask you to purchase a wireless LAN card if your laptop doesn’t have one yet. It’s the cost of the cheapest cell phone on the market, and if you’re looking for a new toy that you can show off at your chosen café or bistro, this is it.

 To café and bistro owners, I ask you to put it up at your establishments, as it costs nearly nothing to install. It wouldn’t hurt to turn your hot spot into a hotspot, would it?

 Because I cannot, will not, must not underestimate the growing potential of the Wi-Fi revolution, especially for us revolution-loving, Info-Climactic Supernova Encounter-addicted Pinoys.

 Just imagine: if texting helped us bring down an inept president years ago, what more can Wi-Fi do for us after this year’s elections?

 See you at a hotspot!