Even you are a subscriber of 3G service, when sitting at a public place like cafe, airport, hotel etc, you may still want to connect the WiFi because 3G sometime really sucks. Then on the list of the public WiFi networks, you may always find some SSID names such as CMCC which is the nationwide WiFi network deployed by China Mobile. Obviously they are not free service. So you may be wondering how we can get them ‘Hacked’?
WlanPlus, an android-based app does the magic (Google Play download). You just run the app, once it finds the public WiFi (currently it only supports CMCC WiFi), click its SSID name, then done! You get online. Simple like that, and the most amazing thing is that you will not get charged. With WlanPlus, if you need, you may also check the places around you which have WiFi hotspots.
Developed by a Hangzhou-based startup, WlanPlus may have a brilliant future ahead. Mr. Lin, the founder of WlanPlus told us that, the support to CMCC WiFi network is just a start, soon WlanPlus will be able to support ChinaNet (by China Telecomm) and ChinaUnicom (by China Unicom) etc, and it iOS app is on the way as well. Talking about the business model, Lin said it would be a freemium model, i.e. you could use WlanPlus for free but ads may be displayed, or you could subscribe the service with a small amount of money to get rid of the ads.
What’s the secret inside WlanPlus, you may ask. Some people believe they have CMCC WiFi hacked, and some think they just bought a bunch of CMCC WiFi accounts then share the time slots with its users. No matter what, the idea is indeed very interesting and super convenient for the users.
That’s cool for sure, but isn’t the idea really immature?
Don’t they think that the operator will quickly add, if there isn’t already, a mention in their terms of use that says it’s not allowed to share an account? If the networks are hacked, how would WlanPlus face lawsuits?
Maybe they already thought about that, and are just betting that nothing bad will happen to them (that’s the immature part)