As far as I know it\'s not possible to scan for hotspots in range and read their bssid and signal strengths. This was possible on iOS 4 by using private APIs and not longer
As far as i know this can still be done (using private APIs, of course) by MobileApple80211 framework.
Stumbler code is a good source of information on how to use this framework.
For iOS 5 you'll need a jailbroken iPhone. Guvener Gokce has a very educational blog post on this: iPhone Wireless Scanner iOS5