Word from Verizon that it plans to decommission the hundreds of free Wi-Fi hot spots it turned up in New York City two years ago has some observers suggesting that demand for such public wireless services is limited.

"This may be the beginning of the end," says Bob Egan, president of consulting firm Mobile Competency. "It's very much a niche application.... In terms of hot spots as a primary source of revenue, nobody's making money and they're not going to."

Wi-Fi service doomsayers acknowledge that hot spots will have their place at certain retail establishments, airports and other venues. After all, the number of hot spots is expected to grow over the next few years. But they say public Wi-Fi, which operates in unlicensed radio frequency spectrum, does not appear poised to become a strategic-business, remote-access service.

"Hot spots are more of a social gathering application with low security," says Larry Swasey, a senior analyst at Visant Strategies. EV-DO "brings in more users, and it's a more secure environment."

Cellular data services such as 2M bit/sec EV-DO and the 14.4M bit/sec High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, although slower than Wi-Fi, have far wider coverage, enable roaming and operate in licensed spectrum less susceptible to interference.

EV-DO is where Verizon is placing its bets. The carrier, which had initially planned to turn up 1,000 Wi-Fi hot spots in New York by the end of 2003 for its DSL customers, is now steering mobile business customers to its cellular EV-DO BroadbandAccess service, which costs $80 per month.

"Wi-Fi was a stopgap for them before they could get [EV-DO] out," Egan says.

The business model for Wi-Fi services - offering speeds up to 54M bit/sec within a 300-foot radius of an access point - has been elusive for carriers. Potential users have been turned off by the pricing structure for access as well as spotty coverage and limited roaming .

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For Verizon, hot spot service didn't generate demand - less than half of the 380 hot spots it is decommissioning generated more than 80% of the traffic.

"Usage didn't live up to our expectations," a Verizon spokesman said. "Customers didn't take advantage of it."