There are currently 4.2 million Wi-Fi hotspots all over the globe and the number will continue to grow and will be up by 15% to 10.5 million come 2018, according to a new report published by ABI Research.

More than two-thirds, or 66.8%, of all Wi-Fi deployments are located in the Asia-Pacific region, owing largely to the huge mobile market in China, where there are currently 620,000 Wi-Fi hotspots installed. State-owned China Mobile owns majority of the market share and has deployed up to 420,000 hotspots in the country. China Telecom has 128,000 deployments, while China Unicom has 72,000.

Latin America has the second biggest market for Wi-Fi, owning up to 12.4% of the entire world total. Oi, a Brazil-based telecommunications company, has just finished with its roll-out of 500,000 deployments in 2013 in preparation for the FIFA World Cup in June.

Around 9% of global hotspots are in Europe, with North America not far behind with 8.7%. The Middle East and Africa combined only have 1.4% of all Wi-Fi hotspots in the world.

"The mobile data growth has boosted the build-out of Wi-Fi hotspots, as it is expected that the global mobile data traffic will grow to 190,000 petabytes in 2018, from 23,000 petabytes in 2013. Wi-Fi helps to offload 3G/4G mobile Internet users to Wi-Fi networks, which is a more cost-effective method for both mobile carriers and mobile users," explains ABI research analyst Marina Lu.

Mobile carriers use Wi-Fi to support their wired services and cellular networks because Wi-Fi can deliver data without using up expensive 3G/4G frequencies. Fixed-line operators can also jump into mobile and maximize their assets through Wi-Fi.

"Wi-Fi also represents a good opportunity for fixed-line operators to join the mobile broadband field. The U.K. fixed-line operator BT with 200,000 of Wi-Fi hotspots, (excluding homespots) is also providing Wi-Fi roaming services to mobile operators and other Wi-Fi providers," says ABI Research vice president and practice director of core forecasting Jake Saunders.  

Third-party operators, such as FON, are also expanding their foray into Wi-Fi. At the end of 2013, FON deployed more than 12 million hotspots all over the world either through its own Wi-Fi hotspots or by securing licenses to its partner carriers' hotspots.

The report profiled hotspots deployed by mobile and fixed-line carriers as well as third-party operators.