Mobility Site - View Single Post - Cringely on "How WhyFi can turn hotspots into a real industry"

deftech · 01-09-04, 03:48 PM

I completely agree, although I don't see anything changing with hotspots in the near future. Here in Tuscaloosa, I am set up pretty well on-campus. Just about every room I have had a class in over the past 1 - 2 years has had WiFi access. Also, most of the libraries have gone wireless now as well. Luckily, all this is a free service for students. To find out the SSID, you can usually just look it up online. With other buildings, you can present your Student ID card at the office, and they will tell you the SSID.

Away from campus however, there is next to nothing around here. Every now and then, you'll find a restaurant or coffee shop that has access. But I'm not going to make my lunch based on them having this.

Here's my idea for "getting away" from the revenue sharing services like T-Mobile and Boingo. It would be a server-hosted program (on the local server) that allows you to securely enter a credit card number upon connecting to the access point. You could have a Pay-Per-Minute option, as well as say a Pay-Per-30Min and Pay-Per-Hour option. The latter two options could be slightly discounted prices. The server-side software would be an initial up-front cost, but would allow the owner of the hotspot to keep all revenue for himself, instead of allowing Boingo (or others) to get a lot of the revenue.

Then again, maybe too many people would be scared of entering a card number over a wireless connection? I think if the security concerns could be worked out of it, that hotspots would be much more beneficial to many owners.

Also though, as newer and newer generations of Cellular technology continue to come out, hotspots will eventually vanish anyhow. If a person can simply whip out their laptop or PDA with a cheap cellular card (they will get cheaper as they become more widely used), then what's the use of Wi-Fi around town? My 3G cellular data connection is much faster than dial-up, and I'm happy with that for e-mail, news, etc. while away from my computer. In the future, cellular data bandwidth will get much faster, and Wi-Fi will likely be a thing of the past anyhow (for "hotspot" type usage). Although, Wi-Fi will likely continue to be popular for LAN usage without having to deal with running wires all over the place.

01-09-04, 03:48 PM	#2 (permalink)
deftech Aximsite Administrator Addicted Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Arkansas Posts: 5,635 Thanked 3 Times in 2 Posts Awards Showcase Total Awards: 3	I completely agree, although I don't see anything changing with hotspots in the near future. Here in Tuscaloosa, I am set up pretty well on-campus. Just about every room I have had a class in over the past 1 - 2 years has had WiFi access. Also, most of the libraries have gone wireless now as well. Luckily, all this is a free service for students. To find out the SSID, you can usually just look it up online. With other buildings, you can present your Student ID card at the office, and they will tell you the SSID. Away from campus however, there is next to nothing around here. Every now and then, you'll find a restaurant or coffee shop that has access. But I'm not going to make my lunch based on them having this. Here's my idea for "getting away" from the revenue sharing services like T-Mobile and Boingo. It would be a server-hosted program (on the local server) that allows you to securely enter a credit card number upon connecting to the access point. You could have a Pay-Per-Minute option, as well as say a Pay-Per-30Min and Pay-Per-Hour option. The latter two options could be slightly discounted prices. The server-side software would be an initial up-front cost, but would allow the owner of the hotspot to keep all revenue for himself, instead of allowing Boingo (or others) to get a lot of the revenue. Then again, maybe too many people would be scared of entering a card number over a wireless connection? I think if the security concerns could be worked out of it, that hotspots would be much more beneficial to many owners. Also though, as newer and newer generations of Cellular technology continue to come out, hotspots will eventually vanish anyhow. If a person can simply whip out their laptop or PDA with a cheap cellular card (they will get cheaper as they become more widely used), then what's the use of Wi-Fi around town? My 3G cellular data connection is much faster than dial-up, and I'm happy with that for e-mail, news, etc. while away from my computer. In the future, cellular data bandwidth will get much faster, and Wi-Fi will likely be a thing of the past anyhow (for "hotspot" type usage). Although, Wi-Fi will likely continue to be popular for LAN usage without having to deal with running wires all over the place. __________________ Jordan M. Wigley Aximsite.com Email: jordan AT aximsite.com . To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Come join the friendly community at To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.