Is It Worth Charging for Wi-Fi Access?
Due to hereUare’s recent “for sale” ARCchart takes a look at the state of the hotspot aggregation market. Its ironic that hereUare is in such dire shape given the high interest level in all thinga WLAN. ARCchart believes that the explanation lies in hereUare’s product offering, the billing system. It’s cheap to install a hotspot, it’s hard to charge for it. In theory that means the money is in the billing. But not when it’s more costly to charge for a service than just use it as a marketing tool to draw people to your venue. I suspect what we’ll end up with is a more refined version of the two tier Wi-Fi networks we have today. Grassroots efforts will erect free hotspots in communities, with cafes and restaurants installing them to draw more traffic. The big guys will build more robust and reliable networks that offer a predictable level of service, but at a price.
