NEWS: Half of Wi-Fi hotspot money is wasted

<http://www.theregister.com/2007/05/23/trustive_wifi_survey/>

Wireless hotspot usage is climbing, but more than half of the money
spent on ad-hoc hotspot access is wasted, according to a survey by
Wi-Fi roaming company Trustive.

The company said its research showed that half of the users surveyed
were connected for 30 minutes or less per session, and more than a
quarter of sessions were 15 minutes or under. With most hotspots
charging by the hour, "basically you're wasting half your money",
said Trustive co-founder and managing director Bram Jan Streefland.
Click here to find out more!

Streefland said the problem is even more acute for businesses,
because most hotspots require payment by credit card, which means the
IT manager has no control over expenditure as the user simply pays it
themselves and then charges it as expenses.

The answer, he claimed, is to use an aggregator - such as Trustive,
Boingo, or iPass - which not only lets you roam across hotspot
networks, but which charges by the minute or second, so you don't pay
for unused time.

[MORE]



John Navas

John Navas wrote:
> <http://www.theregister.com/2007/05/23/trustive_wifi_survey/>
>
> Wireless hotspot usage is climbing, but more than half of the money
> spent on ad-hoc hotspot access is wasted, according to a survey by
> Wi-Fi roaming company Trustive.
>
> The company said its research showed that half of the users surveyed
> were connected for 30 minutes or less per session, and more than a
> quarter of sessions were 15 minutes or under. With most hotspots
> charging by the hour, "basically you're wasting half your money",
> said Trustive co-founder and managing director Bram Jan Streefland.
> Click here to find out more!
>
> Streefland said the problem is even more acute for businesses,
> because most hotspots require payment by credit card, which means the
> IT manager has no control over expenditure as the user simply pays it
> themselves and then charges it as expenses.
>
> The answer, he claimed, is to use an aggregator - such as Trustive,
> Boingo, or iPass - which not only lets you roam across hotspot
> networks, but which charges by the minute or second, so you don't pay
> for unused time.
>
> [MORE]
>

Interesting! If *I* were an IT manager, I would *never* pay for hotspot
access for any employee; there are other alternatives for remote access
for which IT can account for the business-related time. Let the
hotspots suck $$ from Starbucks and Panera customers.


Q

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
Quaoar <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Interesting! If *I* were an IT manager, I would *never* pay for hotspot
> access for any employee; there are other alternatives for remote access
> for which IT can account for the business-related time. Let the
> hotspots suck $$ from Starbucks and Panera customers.
>
>
Panera's (at least as of about 20 minutes ago) is free.

Quaoar wrote:

>
> Interesting! If *I* were an IT manager, I would *never* pay for hotspot
> access for any employee; there are other alternatives for remote access
> for which IT can account for the business-related time. Let the
> hotspots suck $$ from Starbucks and Panera customers.
>
>
> Q

That is what I was thinking. The "IT" manager must have been trained by
best buy to be so clueless. A knowledgeable IT manager would deploy
something much more standardized and not have employees sitting at
hotspots paying by the hour to do business.