User's Requirements in Internet Access Sharing

Nowadays consumers dispose of Internet connections with increasing capacity in such a way that those connections are frequently underused. Sharing connections seems like an obvious attractive response, and it has being explored through several initiatives, e.g. OpenSpark, FON, with relative success although inherent risks. The related studies made so far concerning security, incentives, legality, etc., did not allow inferring a global model upon what some analysis and evaluation of this technology could be done. This is partially because there are several entities playing crucial roles in the realization of this model, e.g. users, service suppliers and authorities and aspects from several dimensions, e.g. technical, regulatory and business that must be considered. Aiming to design such a model, it was carried out an inquiry to potential users, in both perspectives of using and providing a shared Internet access. The preliminary study results are presented here.