Wi-Fi Internet Access Is Hot, but Its Profit Potential Is Tepid
The New York Times has an interesting article that comes to the same conclusions I have about Wi-Fi. It's a great technology that will become more widespread, but there will be few profits. On the hardware side, competition is fierce and eventually only a few players will be able to stay in the game. On the access side, all the services are over priced to drive major demand. Mainstream Wi-Fi access (coffee shops, etc) will be driven to free and considered a utility cost like gas, water and electricity. There maybe a higher end market for business users in exclusive locations like airport exec lounges, conference centers and hotels. In the end Wi-Fi will be bundled as part of wireless and wireline operators suite of core product offerings.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
