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NYT: Making Free Wireless Wi-Fi Internet Pay

Posted by timothy on from the aye-there's-the-rub dept.

securitas writes "The New York Times' Matt Richtel writes about the the challenges of finding a sustainable business model for 802.11 Wi-Fi wireless Internet. The problem for entrepreneurs, telecom companies and others is that the proliferation of free wireless access hotspots at the municipal and grassroots level has obviated commercial carriers' revenue and profit models in many cases. One user quoted in the story sums up the attitude of many wireless users: 'The Internet is free here.... Why would I pay?' IHT, published by the New York Times in Paris, is carrying an abbreviated version of the story."

3 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. You get what you pay for. by Whitecloud · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A free internet wifi connection... but then you are buying coffee and a muffin, so you ARE paying. The cost is absorbed by the cafe. A big business might be able to run at a loss to gain customers, your local cafe sure as hell can't. And really, if you think about it, how much is a coffee and muffin? Is it cheaper than 1 paid hour for web access? Sure, you might have bought a cappacino anyway, but its the little extras you buy that make it worth the cafes while to offer *free* internet.

    --

    Do you need a website upgrade?

  2. Re:why people will pay by tronicum · · Score: 5, Insightful
    A good idea is to split it up :

    • a free internet with proxy, maybe bandwith limitation and no security
    • a pay as you go option with no limits and security
    • a montly billed agrement for people who are using it on a long time basis

    The problem in the future might be that there is limited capacity for the wifi spectrum on the one hand and that for short time usage (at least within Europe) UMTS beomces affordable...

  3. Re:why people will pay by JiffyJeff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This *IS* a business problem... I agree!

    I travel by air frequently and would love to hop onto the hotspots that are available within terminals, however the rates are just too high! The time I spend while waiting to board is limited to 2 hours or less usually -- why would I want to pay $20 for a day-long "pass" at this location? Seriously, all I need to do is check my email and maybe hit slashdot. (And no, I don't want to do it on my phone)

    If these guys got a clue, they would realize that everyone of us "out there" realizes that this is essentially a "free" service. Short of of the hardware infrastructure and the collection of my billing info -- how much cost is really being incurred by my login?

    Don't most porn pages offer a limited subscription for less than $10? Can it be any more difficult than this for Wireless operators? After all, there's probably a lot less data transfer involved.