Hotspot Pricing Sucks, Says CEO
Europe's showing worrying signs of repeating the tariff mistakes made in the US, says WiFi evangelist
December 3, 2003
Europe is in danger of repeating many of the mistakes made by the U.S. public WLAN market, including overpricing, according to self-styled 802.11 evangelist James Kinsella, executive chairman of pan-European operator Interoute Telecommunications, which operates a roaming service (see Interoute Launches WLAN Roaming).
On Tuesday, Kinsella told the FT World Telecommunications Conference in London that, on average, an hour's access to a hotspot in Europe costs €9.9 ($12).
Now, while Kinsella didn't make this comparison, a quick trip to Ebay by Unstrung soon revealed what you can get for less than 12 bucks these days, providing an elegant demonstration of what a giant ripoff hourly access rates really are. Why, for a mere $9.99, you can get yourself an awesome pair of cast-iron buggy wagon steps, or an antique baby's potty! [Ed. note: Best be quick, punters.]
Anyhoo... The point, says Kinsella, is that the hotspot market in the U.S. has been hamstrung (as opposed to unstrung) by "prices that are too high and inconsistent, and [the fact that] there's no single way to access wireless LAN networks. There are too many different user experiences. Now it looks like Europe is making some of the same mistakes."
— Ray Le Maistre, International Editor, Boardwatch
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