A Brisbane entrepreneur has come up with a way for homes to on-sell their unused, unwanted internet data to others.

David Poxon, a QUT PhD student and software engineer, invented a device that enables homes to share their wi-fi and be paid for it.

His start-up company Velvet then developed the small boxes that connect to home wi-fi networks and create a separate wi-fi network that other users can then log on to.

He said he hoped to do for telcos what Uber had done for taxis.

"We want people to turn their routers into hotspots and then be paid for it," Mr Poxon told 612 ABC Brisbane's Spencer Howson.

"The wi-fi owner sets how much data they want to share each month.

The small device creates a separate network from the home network to on-sell data. ( Supplied: QUT )

"Once it hits that amount, the device stops sharing the data for you."

The user pays as they go and the owner of the device gets paid for what is used.

He said the motivation behind the technology was about connecting communities.

"This is about connecting the world with internet and all the benefits having access to the internet provides, such as education.

"It's a win-win because it gives buyers easy access to data without needing a phone company contract."

Mr Poxon said on-selling was legal for homes depending on the telco contract customers had chosen.

"You need to know your terms and conditions and it depends on what telco people are with," he said.

Keeping wi-fi secure

Security was a main focus when creating the device to ensure that both sides of the network chain were safe.

"Because we create a second network, the home network and devices are kept secure," Mr Poxon said.

"On the other side, the people who are using your wi-fi are connected by a VPN (virtual private network) so their data is also safe."

He said the idea would take time to grow, but he hoped people would one day be able to walk down streets in cities all over the world and tap into more "user-pays" wi-fi networks.

"Like many things, we really need to build the network to make it available," he said.

The first batch of devices will ship at the end of September.