Sell Your Own WiFi Access

from the try-not-to-go-to-jail... dept

Thu, Mar 4th 2004 1:36am — Mike Masnick

Well, this sounds familiar. Yet another startup is showing up with the idea of helping individuals sell access to their own WiFi system. Basically, they'll let you turn your own connection into a mini-WISP. This was exactly what Joltage's original plan was, and they didn't even last a year. More recently, Robert Cringely was discussing a similar idea (though, with some slightly different issues). We've already been seeing just how difficult it is for the bigger WISPs and destination points (airports, hotels) to charge for WiFi, why do people suddenly believe they'll be able to charge some random guy sitting in their backyard for WiFi access? This company's business model is built on the false premise that everyone will pay for WiFi, which hasn't been shown to be true. Of course, there's an even bigger problem: most broadband terms of service forbid you from sharing your bandwidth, and they certainly don't let you resell it. So, most people who do agree to do this are probably violating their terms of service. There is, of course, the Speakeasy exception - but they already offer you a way to charge others for using your WiFi.

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Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2004 @ 12:02pm

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The speakeasy exception is an excellent one. Yeah, they're using their existence as your ISP, but they're essentially farming out the HW support and doing the WISP's billing directly from Speakeasy. It looked like a good idea at the time, although I was leaving the country -- too many warmongers -- too quickly to take advantage of it.

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