The Almost Broken Business Models for 802.11 "Service" Providers
An excellent opinion piece from Jeff Pulver talking about why the “business model” for wifi ISPs is broken. People who use wifi are used to using it for free. They expect to use it for free, and charging $40/month for it seems a bit crazy. We’ve discussed similar ideas in the past, and I still think that all the locations that want to offer for-pay wifi are making a mistake. The free wifi is what will attract people to come in for their core business (whatever that may be). By offering a paid wifi service, they’re suddenly taking on responsibility for a completely different business (which they have no expertise in) as well.
