WiFi Flops In Pub With No Gear

Tue, Aug 5th 2003 2:53pm — Mike Masnick

While there have been a few discussions on how having a for-fee WiFi hotspot ends up costing the provider more (you have to handle billing and support, for instance), here's a different angle on the story. A pub in Australia got all excited about WiFi and decided they wanted to turn their pub into another hotspot but can't find anyone who will run it for them. They don't trust the small players, because they're not sure they'll last, and don't want their customers to have to sign up for extra accounts. However, the big telecom firms, for as much as they're talking up WiFi won't return this small pub's phone calls. So, they don't know what to do. Of course, I'm not sure why they need to go that route at all. They mention that (a) they already have a WiFi connection for employees of the pub and (b) they're expecting WiFi to bring in more customers, rather than for profit. So why can't they just throw open their WiFi? They don't need to team up with any WiFi provider, and it's unclear why they think they have to. All they're doing is causing more trouble for themselves and their clientele.

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Filed Under: wifi, wi-fi

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Derek Kerton (profile), 5 Aug 2003 @ 2:53pm

Pubs, Product, Pricing, Placement, and......?
Struth Mike! Promotion! Having an open WiFi node will indeed offer loyalty to those pubsters who may have swapped beer for coffee. However, the open node by itself is very quiet and discrete, and does very little for bringing in NEW customers who might like a few Megabytes with their Four X (beer, mate). By signing on with the Aussie equivalent of a Boingo, WiFinder, or a Sprint PCS, the Pub would actually get the benefit of that marketing, be added to directories, and find strangers dropping in for some WiFi.
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