Re: Hope they win.
Sorry to p*ss all over that comment of yours but it lacks a fundamental mis-understand of two key points here.
1) Electronic devices consume varying levels of power depending on load. If you use your Wi-Fi rarely, it is consuming less power than if it's at full load because a load of random strangers are using it 24 hours a day.
2) It doesn't matter if they're not charging you for bandwidth, the total possible bandwidth is limited, if your connection can do 20Mbps (for example) and the open hotspot users are taking up, lets say 15Mbps, you end up getting only 5Mpbs throughput of the 20 you're paying for.
That's not to mention the fact that you have an open network on a piece of hardware you have little access to or understanding of at a low level as a vector for attack for anyone that fancies attempting to gain entry, or merely deny service, while all the time you think you're safely logging in to your internet banking or streaming the WiFi cam of your sleeping child.
tl;dr: Yes, it will take more power, and yes it will use your bandwidth.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
