Hi All well I will not touch the legal aspect (here in Italy it's illegal but many municipalities are doing it. Anyway, technically there are some issues to consider:
1) how the users are going to get the credentials (e.g. if you provide on screen scredential, if you send them on the mobile phone, etc.). This usually impacts your costs 2) if your billing platform has a "pay as you go" for the accounts. This depends on which commercial/free solution you are adopting, some platforms do not even consider that you could "give it for free" and they charge accordingly to the number of accounts 3) what "internet" you are providing to end users: are you providing the full internet or just a filtered (e.g. no p2p) internet. Are you providing just email and facebook or you want also youtube/multimedia? 4) if you provide private or public IPs to the end users. Public IPs are precious nowadays 5) the service that the users expect. If they think it's "the same stuff I have at home" well at home you pay 20-30$/months so for sure a "free" (=paid with taxes of the municipality) connection means a lower level of service (speed, etc) 6) how many CONCURRENT users you think will connect which means bandwidth and "hotspot density". 7) if the price includes also the maintenance. Who is going to pay when the service is not working? who is going to fix the devices? 8) who is going to give support if the user cannot log into the internet? are you considering your support guys? 9) are you going to give 24H internet or just 1H/day internet and for how many days? 10) who is going to pay the electrical power fees? are they giving you also the power to run the devices or you have to find your own power plug? (not so silly question belive me some people think microwaves work by magic) On the business model: I would say, there are many models: 1) you want something they have (e.g. towers or places) and you trade 2) you are offering free internet for 1h and then you charge for extra hours per day 3) you want to advertise your service (e.g. fixed internet) and you do it for free So at the bottom line, consider ALL the paranoid details and then add "this and that" to the overall cost. The bad surprises occur if you sign a contract and then you realize it was not detailed enough to provide the service Then once you have the costs, figure out which one best fits for you and them Just my 2 Euro cents :) Paolo > There are a couple of ways to do it. > > You can provide it either by how much bandwidth you will be providing to > the installation, or by how many concurrent users you will be providing > service for. > > If they/you choose bandwidth system, I would charge what you would > charge any other commercial account for that level of service, plus > something on there for the upkeep. > > Concurrent users I would price based on XXX Kbps per user, on the same > commercial structure. Based on what they/you expect the usage to be. > > Thank you, > > Jon Turlington <mailto:j...@ndemand.com> > > AD&S Manager > > NDemand, Inc. <http://www.ndemand.com/> > > Phone: 713-559-9651 > > Fax: 713-559-9700 > > *From:*wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] > *On Behalf Of *Terry White > *Sent:* Thursday, April 11, 2013 12:04 PM > *To:* WISPA General List > *Subject:* [WISPA] free public wifi > > I have been asked by our city to provide free public wifi in a lake/ > park area. has anybody ever done this and charged the city or county to > provide the service. If so how much did you charge? > > Terry White > > United Services > > (800) 585 - 6454 > > twh...@ueci.coop <mailto:twh...@ueci.coop> > > WildBlue <http://www.unitedsky.net/WildBule/index.html> DIRECTV > <http://www.unitedsky.net/DirecTV/index.html> United Sky > <http://www.unitedsky.net/UnitedSky/index.html> > > "Your Local Satellite Professionals" > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wireless mailing list > Wireless@wispa.org > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > -- Ing. Paolo Di Francesco Level7 s.r.l. unipersonale Sede operativa: Largo Montalto, 5 - 90144 Palermo C.F. e P.IVA 05940050825 Fax : +39-091-8772072 assistenza: (+39) 091-8776432 web: http://www.level7.it _______________________________________________ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
