Avis Looks To Take Out The Market Selling WiFi Access To Travelers

from the you-mean-i-won't-have-to-go-to-starbucks? dept

Avis this week launched its Avis Connect service, the WiFi-hotspot-in-a-car service it first announced at the beginning of the year. For $10.95 a day, renters can get a WiFi access point that's backhauled over an EV-DO connection, so it should offer speeds of 500 to 800 kbps. But the device isn't attached to the car users rent, so they can take it with them into their hotel, or anywhere else they go. The cost is very competitive with many paid WiFi offerings, particularly those in the many hotels that still charge for it, and it has the additional utility of being portable and supporting multiple users -- so it has quite a good chance of success. However, perhaps what's more interesting is to see how Avis is striving to differentiate itself in a field of what's essentially commodity offerings. Car-rental firms have tried to compete with frequent-renter programs and quick-checkout systems, but they're all basically at parity. These sorts of add-ons, like internet access or GPS navigation or satellite radio, could become useful differentiators among companies. Perhaps they'll also see the rental firms become like some discount airlines, where the plane ticket is a loss leader, and the real revenues come from all the extras.

Google Wants To Auction Spectrum Now, Too

from the i'll-take-10k-impressions-and-2-GHz dept

Google's been talking about wireless spectrum for a while now, both as part of a coalition asking for the white space around TV channels to be opened up, but it's also been mentioned as a possible bidder in the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auctions later this year. While Google's not commenting on whether or not it will bid on the spectrum, it has made a proposal to the FCC to allow for a "real-time airwaves auction model" for it. Google wants to set up a system for the spectrum that would work much like AdWords does, only instead of advertisers bidding for impressions, service providers would be bidding for spectrum. While we're supportive of ways to make spectrum more flexible and useful, and support the idea of allowing spectrum to be leased and sold in general, it's hard to see a lot of benefit in Google's plan. It says the auction would allow for spectrum to be fully utilized by letting companies easily auction off excess in real-time. That may be true, but it seems unlikely that there will be a lot of interest from potential bidders. Short-term leases that carry few guarantees aren't exactly attractive if you're trying to build a sustainable business -- for instance, it's not a great idea to start up a mobile broadband service one month, then tell your customers that you're sorry, but you got outbid this month, so you've gone dark, but they can be sure and check back next month to see if the service is up again. Perhaps the bottom line here is that spectrum owners should have the flexibility to do something like this, or lease their spectrum another way, should they see fit. But simply having that ability doesn't automatically make it a good idea to do so.