Similar to your option 2, Sputnik is trying to make WiFi hot spot deployment and management cheap enough for people to put them up for free end-user access. Someone (probably the provider) can reap the benefits from advertising on a splash page or login page that the end-user sees when they first open their browser.
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Similar to your option 2, Sputnik is trying to make WiFi hot spot deployment and management cheap enough for people to put them up for free end-user access. Someone (probably the provider) can reap the benefits from advertising on a splash page or login page that the end-user sees when they first open their browser.
See for example what 3rd wave is doing in Atlanta:
http://www.sputnik.com/partners/customers.html
http://www.3rdwavehotspot.com/
3rd wave purchases the APs and manages the network, and end-users in Atlanta just request where they want them and use them for free!
Caveat: I work for Sputnik, so of course I think this stuff is cool...