WiFi Everywhere

Posted by: Michael Disabato

I just returned from a trip to Prague in conjunction with our Catalyst Europe conference. (It's a rough job, but someone gets to do it.) One thing I noticed was the profusion of free WiFi hot spots throughout the city. I do not know how the mobile operators feel about this (and I don't really care, having found a nice way to cut my data bill), but a common sight is people sitting in a restaurant or cafe, enjoying a spot of Internet with their coffee and strudel (yummy strudel!). Needless to say, This was a good thing and I made use of it as I walked the city.

Several questions come out of this:

1 - How do they make money giving away Internet connectivity?

2 - Does anyone there understand the Channel 6 problem and the need for spectrum management?

3 - Over the long term, how will this affect the mobile operators?

I'd love to hear from others who have found cities with free WiFi and your thoughts on this.

Michael

Comments

[Max]

The wireless service in Prague sounds great, and I'd surely use it! And, I bet Prague was beautiful this time of the year. More importantly, how was the beer (you covered the strudel)?

Someone needs to pay for this, right? Do taxpayers? Is the PTT forced to provide it, which means someone is subsidizing it through higher fees like our "Universal Charge"? Were you getting like 24Kbps, or speeds above 128Kbps?

People expect (probably not you) free Internet access, yet I never saw free public phones on street corners, which would make more sense than someone Twitter'ing around town (not aimed at you).

Haven't free wireless projects in US cities been met with financial problems, and some providers have backed out like Google and Sprint?

Back to cost: Someone has to pay for it, unless we are willing to accept socialism in which case taxpayers shell out for (crappy) services they may never use via higher tax margins. Government doesn't create wealth and prosperity, it collects taxes rather efficiently and spends money rather inefficiently. PELOSI!!!

Me: I like the good old capitalist system, only charge a reasonable amount, and don't price gouge like is done at airports and big name coffee shops.

I've been to Europe and the price they charge in some hotels is like Tony Soprano running the service! 24 Euros/24 hours of less than 128Kbps wired service - YIKES!!! My wireless Internet service at home is $35/month, and I get upwards of 2Mbps, and VoIP works great. I don't have access to cable service nor has my ILEC (QWEST) provided DSL, yet they are busy rolling out fiber to some neighborhoods before they ensure good DSL coverage. At least my WiFi provider is reasonably priced in their monopolized Internet access market, the service is great and no one held the FCC to their head to make them offer service.

I'd like to see more long-range, broadband services, like WiMax, available to areas without dense populations for ILECs to cash in with over-subscribed DSL services.