Cringely discussed similar idea 2 years ago (Score 1)

Robert X. Cringely discussed something similar on 27 May 2004. His discussion was in the context of VoIP providers trying to get a wi-fi network rolled out, but without the VoIP provider needing to buy & operate thousands of APs.

... the WRT54G with Sveasoft firmware is all you need to become your cul de sac's wireless ISP (WISP). Going further, if a bunch of your friends in town had similarly configured WRT54Gs, they could seamlessly work together ...

[...]

There is an obvious business opportunity here, especially for VoIP providers like Vonage, Packet8 and their growing number of competitors. If I was running a VoIP company, I'd find a way to sell my service through all these new Wireless ISPs. The typical neighborhood WISP doesn't really want to do anything beyond keeping the router plugged-in and the bills paid, so I as a VoIP vendor would offer a bundled phone-Internet service for, say, $30 per month. I handle the phone part, do all the billing and split the gross sales with the WISP based the traffic on his router or routers. If one of my users walks around with a WiFi cordless phone, roaming from router to router, it doesn't matter since my IP-based accounting system will simply adjust the payments as needed.

The result is a system with economics with which a traditional local phone company simply can't compete.

That's just one idea how these little routers might be used. The actual killer app will probably be something altogether different, but I am convinced this is the platform that will enable it. And that's because what we are talking about here isn't just what you can do with a WRT54G, but what you will soon be able to do with almost any wireless access point.