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Wireless Wants to Be Free. Glenn Fleishman reports on Sky Dayton's plans for Boingo Wireless to launch with 750 802.11b "host spots." But look at this: "Pricing has initially been set in three tiers: a pay-as-you-go model, which requires a free account setup, at $7.95 per connection (up to 24 hours in a single venue); a medium-usage package offering 10 of these connections for $24.95 per month, and $4.95 per additional connection; or $74.95 per month for unlimited connections. Dayton said that there is no bandwidth cap nor any surcharge for use at any partner location, including hotels." [Source: 802.11b Networking News]
Sure. You bet. I'm going to walk into my local Starbucks (er, Peet's) for a latte and plop down another $7.95 just to check my email. Or even the discounted $2.50. I don't think so. Okay, so maybe the hot spots are in hotels. Better, but still not great. Here in the S.F. Bay area there are a number of coffee shops and BAWUG sites offering free Wi-Fi access, and this movement is growing. Glenn's The Man on 802.11b, but I've got to believe two things: (1) the prices will always trend towards zero, and (2) very few will sign up for a package that isn't universal. i.e., There needs to be some peering and settlement between multiple public Wi-Fi operators so I can use anyone's service.
Posted Thursday, December 20, 2001 9:27:02 AM 
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