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Joltage Powers Down

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the dot-bomb-aftershock dept.

jbyter writes "Wi-Fi service provider Joltage sent a e-mail to subscribers that read "It is with regret that I am writing to inform you that Joltage will be discontinuing its Wi-Fi subscriber and provider services effective at the end of this month." This could have been very cool, but due to economy and lack of subscriber participation they are no longer able to finance their operations." Too bad -- this sounded like a good idea. The Joltage homepage isn't much help -- it's in place, but content-free. Any other Joltage customers who can comment on this?

6 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Its so sad... by scalis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Its sad to see when people with good ideas being a bit ahead of their time run out of resources to develop their idea into something really big.
    I take off my hat for them for being one of the pioneers of something that clearly is a part of the future... GG

    --

    True ravers don't need drugs
  2. On the other hand by kfg · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Please note that your local bakery takes up shelf space to sell their excess production at a lower price, rather than looking for a smaller rental space. In fact, they over produce a bit on purpose just so they can do this.

    Not to mention that selling more for less consists of the entire mass market philosophy.

    The point being that it's overall profits that count, not unit price.

    KFG

  3. Wireless ISPs... limited viability by Fnkmaster · · Score: 1, Interesting
    It just doesn't make sense. Most areas are too sparsely populated for limited range broadcast 802.11b hardware to get to enough people. Sure, sometimes neighbors or groups will spontaneously set something up like this, as a bandwidth collective. But building something as grass roots as that into a sustainable, growable business? No way. 802.11b (and a/g now) is great for what it's meant for. And if you live somewhere like NYC or Boston, when your asshole DSL/cable modem provider spews chunks on your connection and it goes haywire, it's nice to be able to hang your wireless access point out the window, run an SSID scanner, and find a good, open 802.11b network running on Joe Schmoe's Linksys box the next building over and tap into his bandwidth for a while (yes, I did this with a friend in his building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan when his RCA cable modem service borked up). Or if your nextdoor neighbor is kind enough to have an open 802.11b network, just bring your laptop into the living room and surf away (this was what I did my first two weeks in my new apartment in Boston before AT&T Broadband got me set up).


    But commercializing collective bandwidth sharing using fundamentally short-range, modest latency "hotspots"? Especially when it violates TOSes of most residential broadband providers? I just think people got caught up with the wireless hype and didn't think too much about the economics of it.

  4. What idiots by NDPTAL85 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you read this Wired story that was linked from the orignal Slashdot story you'll see why this failed:
    http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382 ,51353,00 .html

    --
    Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
  5. wifi will be free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think that it is going to be hard for these pay services to grab hold because there are so many open access points.

    A local cafe/coffee shop just put in free wifi. It is awesome to be able to sit down there and get some work done. It is now my favorite spot for business meetings.

    Contrast this to paying $x/hr for a connection at Starbucks. I think that eventually many places like Starbucks will be offering access for free just to keep up.

    There also seems to be a lot of community interest in providing access points in many public places. There are two places in the downtown area of my city where the city provides free wifi access. It's good for business and good for the community.

    The cost of putting up an access point is pretty cheap. Coffee shops, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses will start to put them up as a way to attract customers. A lot of communities will be putting access points in public locations. There won't be any reason to pay. Businesses with the pay access will lose business to those who offer free access.

  6. Re:I briefly worked for these guys by inteller · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah, well who is saying that growing up in a world of customer service is bad....I think this was a cop out comment because Joltage provided little to NONE! Their message board system only worked half the time and the answers were vague to stupid. When YOUR software wouldn't install I was instructed to reinstall my server.....that is a typical Microsoft answer. It was lame too. The other problem was this garbage was written in Java. Hopefully someone will come along and properly implement a windows service that does what Joltage promised....but actually works!