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| Forget About Relying on Hotspots |
July 12, 2005 |
By Peter Wolchak
Businesses completely miss the point of hotspots, so for now the only workable mobile strategy is a blended one.
It is a truism of the tech industry that there is typically a bit of breathing room between what providers promise and what is actually delivered.
A case in point is Wi-Fi hotspots. There aren’t any. Well, okay, by one estimate there are about 1,100 in Canada, but they are spread so thinly it sure feels like there aren’t any around when you need one.
Hotspots have been heavily promoted by industry players, and they’re right as far as it goes: public Wi-Fi is great. When you can get it.
Get off your butts So why aren’t there more hotspots? The technology is cheap and easy to install.
Heck, a hotspot can be yours for the price of a wireless router and two hours of some kid’s time to set it up. See our story on page 12.
But businesses are not doing it. It seems they all expect to make a bundle of money off Wi-Fi and if that’s not happening they’ll just take a pass.
But here’s the thing: that approach completely misses the Wi-Fi point. Wireless access should be a value add, not a revenue generator. You should install it in your café, pub, office lobby or outdoor flea market because people will use it, appreciate it and be happy with you for supplying it. And then they will buy more stuff from you.
This has been exactly the experience at Toronto’s Bar Italia. Wi-Fi is free for customers, and they respond by spending more time and money in the restaurant.
Everyone is happy.
In an opposite example, the Fairmont Royal York is one of Toronto’s grand hotels, located right in downtown, across the street from Union Station. These factors — hotel, downtown, train station — result in many business and vacation travellers moving through the Royal York. But does this huge hotel chain offer free Wi-Fi access? It does not.
Unless you have paid for a room, 24 hours of Internet access will set you back $13.95.
Free Wi-Fi would, I suspect, generate more money in incremental sales and goodwill than the hotel currently rakes in at $13.95 a pop.
In fact, I will make a public promise: any pub or coffee shop that installs a free Wi-Fi hotspot near me will make money from me.
Wi-Fi is like restaurant bathrooms: a necessary business expense. Can you imagine eating in a restaurant that didn’t have bathrooms? So more businesses need to get off their butts and install hotspots.
The solution, for now Does that mean you should dismiss hotspots and dump them into the Big Bin of Failed Ideas? No way; hotspots are a great idea. But for now there are too few to rely on, so opt for a blended strategy: use Wi-Fi when possible and cellular the rest of the time. In this scenario, the ideal mobile kit is a Wi-Fi laptop and a cellularenabled handheld computer, like the Palm Treo or the HP iPAQ h6325.
Imagine you’re away from the office and you need to update and e-mail a large spreadsheet. You can edit the spreadsheet on the handheld, but realistically the screen is too small for complicated work. So do this on your laptop and, if there is a hotspot nearby, send it off. If not, transfer the spreadsheet to the handheld using either Bluetooth or a removable Secure Digital card and then e-mail it from there.
I’ve done this many times. It works and it’s easy to do. And until hotspots become ubiquitous it’s a workable solution to the problem of mobile business connectivity.
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