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News and information for free public access Wi-Fi location owners and users

We call a hotspot that offers free Wi-Fi internet access a Wi-Fi-FreeSpot.

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Free Wi-Fi on way to becoming standard of service

This is the title of an article, written by Glenn Fleischman, appearing in Monday's Seattle Times.

Fulll article

Glenn's writings about Wi-Fi can also be found on his weblog - Wi-Fi Networking News

posted by Jim at 7:38 AM

 

802.11 Planet's Wi-Fi Conference in Boston
I visited the conference on Friday. Joel Short of Nomadix had an interesting Keynote address about the need for interoperability and roaming standards and the potential for profits from Wi-Fi. His concentration was on the needs of the "nomadic" traveling business user. For this particular user, fee based access that offers consistent, secure and widely available services can be a successful business model.

The Will People Pay for Hotspot Service? panel discussion, moderated by Glenn Fleischman, was very interesting. John C. Wooley, Chairman and CEO of Schlotszky's Delis, made a very compelling case for free Wi-Fi by explaining why it worked for them. In addition to increasing in-store revenue their willingness to broadcast the signal to areas around their store locations and their use of a Captive Portal screen has created tremendous marketing and branding opportunities. In addition, as part of the log-in process they gather some customer information in a more cost effective manner than other methods of gathering this type of info. I'll be contacting him to see if he will make some statistical info he quoted available. If so, I'll be posting it on the FreeSpot Network site.

I came away from the conference with a belief that fee based and free access can peacefully coexist and quite possibly in the same locations. There needs to be a better understanding of how the needs of the "nomadic" user differ from those of the "casual" neighborhood user. The "nomadic" user will be willing to pay a reasonable fee for a higher level of service, while the "casual" user will be very content with the services provided by free access.

posted by Jim at 5:41 AM

 

Nationwide Free Wi-Fi

No, not the USA just yet, but the tiny South Pacific island of Niue offers free nationwide Wi-Fi access to all residents and visitors.

posted by Jim at 4:20 PM

 

Wi-Fi Conference

Boston hosts the 802.11 Planet Conference and Expo this Wed. - Fri. at the World Trade Center. Hotspot Central is the title of one of Friday's tracks and within that track is a session titled "Will People Pay for Hotspot Service?", moderated by Glenn Fleischman of Wi-Fi Networking News and the panel includes John C. Wooley, Chairman, President, and CEO, of Schlotzsky's Inc., a chain of Delis in Texas that offer free Wi-Fi access. Another session is titled " Emerging Hotspot Business Models " and one of the speakers in Michael Oh of Boston's Tech Superpowers, the people who provide free access on Newbury St. through their newburyopen.net service. Should be interesting. Free access locations continue to spread while more and more studies question the chances of success for the paid access hotspot model.

posted by Jim at 5:45 AM

 

FreeSpot Directory Additions

New listing in LA on the California page, and a new addition on Boston's Newbury St. on the Massachusetts page and two new listings in Paris on the Europe page.

posted by Jim at 5:27 AM

 

FreeSpot Directory Additions

The Directory has it's first listing on the Central and South America page in Mexico. Other pages with new listings are New Hampshire, New York and Oregon.

posted by Jim at 3:29 PM

 

FreeSpot Directory Additions

Congratulations Vermont, you've got your first FreeSpot. Guests of The Inn at Weathersfield in Perkinsville can get free access. New entries can be found on the New York, Connecticut, Arizona and Oregon pages too.

posted by Jim at 6:56 AM

 

802.11g is official

You've probably read all about it by now. New products should be flooding the market soon and upgrades for previously released products will be out soon as well.

posted by Jim at 6:52 AM

 

FreeSpot Directory Additions

A busy few days for new additions. Thanks to all who e-mailed in with locations they've found or own in Ireland, California, Missouri, the first listing in Australia, Canada, Kentucky and Michigan.

posted by Jim at 3:56 PM

 

Verizon's Free Wi-Fi's impact on fee based hotspots

A quote from an article at 80211-planet.com about Verizon and Wi-Fi says "Amy Cravens, a senior analyst and hotspot guru for In-Stat/MDR sees predictions of Verizon's entry into the field as the death-knell for fee-based public Wi-Fi being only a statement of the inevitable. Cravens says cafes serving up wireless broadband are not profitable and are better suited as a free amenity -- like good lighting or air-conditioning."

posted by Jim at 1:32 PM

 

Centrino and Virtual Private Network (VPN) software problems.

A story in Wired News details compatibility problems that cause laptops that use the Centrino chipset to freeze up when trying to use several VPN products.

posted by Jim at 5:15 PM

 

FreeSpot Directory Additions

New additions on the Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Europe (Poland) pages.

posted by Jim at 5:11 PM