According to the Pioneer Press, Comcast may be bring Wi-Fi to the Twin Cities via its customers…

Cable company Comcast, the Twin Cities’ largest broadband-Internet provider, is the latest to boldly expand its Wi-Fi reach — even extending it outdoors.

This week, the Philadelphia-based company detailed its nationwide plan to modify or replace its home customers’ wireless routers so that they broadcast two Wi-Fi signals: the private Wi-Fi network accessed by the homeowners, and a separate, public Xfinity-branded Wi-Fi signal accessible to all — neighbors and passersby.

In effect, this would make every Comcast Internet customer’s home a hotspot, potentially knitting together a Wi-Fi signal that could blanket a city, making accessing a signal similar to turning on the radio.

That would be great, especially if they consider broadening the reach to all of their coverage areas. In the nice accompaniment to the article, reporter Julio Ojeda-Zapata addresses some potential concerns from the customer perspective…

MAKE MY ROUTER PUBLIC? REALLY?

Residential Wi-Fi users may need a bit of time to wrap their heads around the idea of opening up their routers for public use while preserving their private access. Among the concerns they might raise:

Security. Properly configured, a router with public-access Wi-Fi should not represent a security risk for those on the router’s private and secure network. The technical reasons for this are a bit complicated; read an Open Wireless Movement explanation at openwireless.org.

Service degradation. Those using the slower public portion of a home router typically won’t degrade performance on the faster private side. Future routers would speed up public access when the private side isn’t being used and give the private network priority if required.

Legal liability. Those who fear being blamed for misuse of their public Wi-Fi signals are said to be protected under a “safe harbor” doctrine akin to that protecting Internet service providers. In other words, they’re likely not liable for the mischief of porn purveyors or music pirates.

Freeloading. Fear of freeloaders is misplaced, the Open Wireless Movement believes. “Sharing capacity helps everyone,” it says. “If you’ve ever been without Internet access and needed to check an email, you will remember how useful open networks can be in a pinch.”