Small Businesses Need Wireless Internet, Too
The Washington Post has a short article about yet another WiFi hotspot provider, Wise Technologies, in the Washington DC area. It was started by a venture capitalist who was so excited by the idea of WiFi hotspots, and so upset that he couldn't find such a company to invest in, started his own. It sounds like they're making all the same mistakes that all the early hotspot providers made. They're focusing on small businesses (mainly restaurants), and have no idea what a reasonable business model is. They help the businesses set up the hotspot, for a fee, and then share some of the revenue generated by people who use the hotspots. Of course, the article doesn't indicate if anyone actually is paying to use those hotspots - and if other articles on this subject are any indication the answer is probably "not very many". WiFi hotspots are a great idea, but they're priced at ridiculous levels - especially when they're competing with all the free WiFi hotspots out there. Something needs to give.
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
