Providing geographic context for applications and services on a wide area network

A machine-readable medium including instructions which when executed in a processing system provides geographic location of a mobile client device by:

• searching for broadcasts of geographic location transmitted by an access point over a network;
• and
• resending found geographic location information in a first application layer protocol to a service provided by a server coupled to the access point over a network, wherein the application accepts the geographic location of the access point as the geographic location of the client device.

A network system comprising:

• a wireless mobile device coupled to an access point over a wireless network, the wireless mobile device configured to derive its own geographic location from a geographic location of the access point;
• and
• a wide area network coupling the access point to a service provider, the service provider configured to provide a service that requires a geographic location of the mobile device.

A method comprising:

• determining a geographic location of an access point coupled to a client device over a first network;
• storing the geographic location in a memory coupled to the access point;
• providing the geographic location of the access point to an application service provider coupled to the client device, wherein the geographic location of the access point is adopted as the location of the client device for purposes of geographic context used by an application provided by the application service provider.