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 Channel Futures

Uncategorized


Free WiFi Remains An Expensive Error

  • Written by Joe Panettieri 1
  • February 16, 2010
Twice in the past week, I've learned that you get what you pay for in the broadband market. Over and over again during my travels, I sign onto "free" WiFi services. And most times I wind up terribly disappointed. Here's why.

Many readers have read my rants about JetBlue's hit-and-miss free WiFi service in the airline's JFK International terminal. Alas, the problems don't end there.

free_wi_fi_spotTwice in the past week, I’ve learned that you get what you pay for in the broadband market. Over and over again during my travels, I sign onto “free” WiFi services. And most times I wind up terribly disappointed. Here’s why.

Many readers have read my rants about JetBlue’s hit-and-miss free WiFi service in the airline’s JFK International terminal. Alas, the problems don’t end there.

Over the weekend, I was left without WiFi and broadband for more than 24 hours during the Kaspersky Lab, Americas Partner Conference in the Dominican Republic. Actually, the WiFi worked. But the free service, offered by the host resort, lost its connection to the broader Internet. It was a painful 24 hours in paradise. No joke. Roughly 12 to 14 hours of productivity were gone.

Fast forward to the present. I’m in a hotel near Albany, N.Y. The free WiFi service is abysmal. The hotel kindly gave me an Ethernet cable to plug into the hotel network. Finally, I’ve got broadband that performs reasonably well.

For the most part, free WiFi has wound up costing me endless hours in lost productivity. Generally speaking, I think free WiFi services inspire “just good enough” broadband that really isn’t good enough. And nobody takes corrective action because frustrated customers aren’t willing to complain about free services that miss the mark.

Sure, there are some examples of solid, free WiFi. My free Wifi experiences at Panera Bread have been mostly positive.

Still, I’m willing to pay a reasonable price for fast, wireless broadband. When it comes to getting work done over WiFi, free generally isn’t worth the price.

Tags: Uncategorized

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4 comments

  1. Avatar Stuart Crawford February 17, 2010 @ 2:30 am
    Reply

    JP

    Time to invest in a rocket stick mate

    Stuart Crawford
    Calgary Canada
    http://stuart.calgarybloggers.ca

  2. Avatar Joe Panettieri February 17, 2010 @ 2:56 am
    Reply

    Stuart: Mate? When did you move to Australia? 😉

    Best
    -jp

  3. Avatar Matthew Wheeler February 17, 2010 @ 3:04 am
    Reply

    We run networks for dozens of hotels and we know expectations are low because there are SO many bad providers (the in-house providers for franchises are some of the worst because they have no competitive pressure and don’t allow franchisees to use alternative services).

    I wish everyone else built Three-9s networks like we do, where power and ISP circuits were ONLY the weak links keeping us from five-9s.

    Hotels don’t want to set expectations *too* high because they are businesses that don’t focus on technology and the requirements for running a 24*7 network get expensive fast. But the`We build wireless by trial and error’ integrators are the worst – it’s physics folks, learn to do some math!

    I know some people are too polite to complain, free or not, but as long as you have called for help (we have a 99.75% resolution rate), letting the hotelier know you expect more helps everyone.

  4. Avatar Stuart Crawford February 17, 2010 @ 1:17 pm
    Reply

    Hey, it is a Canadian thing as well 🙂

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