Wi-Fi hotspots simply too expensive
By Jan Libbenga
Published Wednesday 2nd June 2004 10:32 GMT
Wi-Fi hotspots will only meet the needs of small customer groups and for the majority of hotspots there will be little or no return of investment. So says the Scientific Institute for Communication Services or WIK, Germany’s leading research and advisory institute for communication services.
The institute expects a consolidation process within the next few years. More importantly, it warns that users find the tariffs of public Wi-Fi services – 5 to 10 euros per hour – simply too high.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/02/wi_fi_hotspots_expensive/
More UK train firms commit to on-board Wi-Fi
By Tony Smith
Published Tuesday 25th May 2004 09:19 GMT
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Together, Virgin and the other three operators account for 20 per cent of the UK rail industry, which comprises 29 TOCs, including Virgin’s two and GNER. They run over 700 trains, all of which will be gaining Wi-Fi support over the next four years, Broadreach said.
In a survey of 1600 UK rail passengers conducted in March and April this year on behalf of Broadreach, some 78 per cent of business travellers said they are interested in using Wi-Fi on train journeys. And 72 per cent said the provision of such services would persuade them to take trips by train rather than by car or aircraft.
Since most of them are willing to pay up to £12 for the privilege, depending on the lenth of the journey, that’s a big motivation for TOCs to roll-out wireless Internet technology. Around half of their business customers already carry a laptop on board – almost a quarter take a PDA with them. How many of those devices are already WLAN-enabled is not known, however.
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/25/broadreach_rail_wifi/