Patent ID: 9603028
Date: 2017-03-21
CPC Classifications: H04L,H04W

Claim:
1. A method of operating a consumer computing device, comprising: receiving, at the consumer computing device, network coverage data indicative of geographic coverage of a community Wi-Fi network, wherein the community Wi-Fi network comprises sharer computing devices in differing local networks that share respective network bandwidth capacities, wherein the geographic coverage of the community Wi-Fi network is a union of geographic coverages of the sharer computing devices that share the network bandwidth capacities available to the differing local networks, and wherein the community Wi-Fi network is accessible by the consumer computing device within the union of the geographic coverages of the sharer computing devices using the network bandwidth capacities of the differing local networks shared by the sharer computing devices; and displaying a map on a display screen of the consumer computing device, the map comprising visual information that specifies the geographic coverage of the community Wi-Fi network in a geographic region that comprises a geographic location of the consumer computing device.