The Wi-Fi market is an attraction to old and established players as well as new comers. Wi-Fi companies are mushrooming everywhere worldwide, this special report from Wired Magazine by Paul Boutin highlights who's who and who's hot in the industry.

A user's guide to service providers, software companies, hardware makers, and chipset manufacturers. By Paul Boutin

As the Wi-Fi industry evolves from a handful of hot spots into a full network, it is splitting into four sectors: service providers that operate networks; software firms whose apps tweak the usefulness of Wi-Fi or manage networks; hardware that connects you to the network; and chipsets at the core of the hardware.

Service Providers

Independent Wi-Fi providers, like early ISPs, face competition and consolidation as telecom firms enter the fray. Cellular carriers and Baby Bells have mostly avoided the scene: Compared with cell phone systems, Wi-Fi suffers from limited range and a puny market. It makes sense for the big boys to wait until smaller providers grow the market, then swoop in and take over. It won't happen this year, or next, but it's coming.

To read the rest of the report, please vist this link http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.05/unwired/companies.html