Two recent Wi-Fi network announcements reinforced the notion that Wi-Fi business models vary from place to place.
In Pittsburgh, a free outdoor Wi-Fi network is in the works to provide coverage throughout the city’s central business district along with its Golden Triangle, North Shore and Lower Hill districts.
The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, comprised of business and community leaders as well as civic organizations, hired U.S. Wireless Online to design, construct and operate the Wi-Fi network, which is expected to be operational by September. Users will be able to purchase day passes and high-speed access packages as needed.
U.S. Wireless Online has already deployed similar but smaller Wi-Fi networks in Baton Rouge, La., and Los Angeles.
In the United Kingdom, an all-you-can-eat, paid-for plan was launched last week by Wi-Fi network operator The Cloud. The company said its Ultra Wi-Fi offering is available in 9 U.K. cities using about 7,000 hot spots throughout the country.
Bobby Sarin, The Cloud’s chief operating officer, said the Ultra Wi-Fi service gives mobile Internet users a “realistic alternative to mobile data solutions from cellular operators.”
The company said it is switching on its city hotzones in Manchester, Birmingham, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham and Oxford, along with the London boroughs of Kensington, Chelsea, Camden and Islington. In addition, the company said it expects its London hotzone to be operational by September.
The network also includes hotzones The Cloud has established in several airports, train stations, coffee houses, cafes and hotels, as well as more than 4,000 pubs, the company said.
In late April, The Cloud announced it was partnering with Vonage Holdings Corp. to offer mobile Voice over Internet Protocol calling to Vonage subscribers. The plan offers users the capability of automatically registering with an access point without having to log in as they enter Wi-Fi coverage, but since Wi-Fi currently lacks the ability to hand off calls between hot spots, calls are dropped when coverage is lost, forcing users to revert to a traditional mobile phone.
The Vonage service includes unlimited Internet voice service for $14.25 per month plus equipment rental. Handsets that support the offering include the UTStarcom F1000 and will be available directly from Vonage.
With so many deployments and network plans in the works, it’s clear that Wi-Fi’s use is gaining momentum, changing the way we work and creeping into our leisure time.
In fact, the Wi-Fi Alliance, along with Kelton Research, is touting a new study indicating that 80 percent of those surveyed, all U.S. residents between ages 18 and 64, said they would give up their iPods before they would give up their home Wi-Fi network. When asked whether they would rather give up their home landline phone service or their home Wi-Fi network, 79 percent said they would rather live without their home phone.
A whopping 55 percent of the respondents said they use their Wi-Fi connections to work at home at least 2-3 times per week, though many said they didn’t necessarily work out of a traditional home office.
Rather Wi-Fi users worked in their kitchens, living rooms and in a public space such as a coffee shop or bookstore. Interestingly, wireless users age 40 to 64 were 10 percent more likely to “work from home” outside of a home office than people aged 18 to 29-years old.
