On Mon, Dec 02, 2002 at 08:31:51PM -0800, Patrick Leary wrote: > > All the hotspot noise as far as the major IT interests are concerned is only > about getting the money out of business travelers in hotels, airports, and > coffee shops.
<snip> First off, I'm very much in support of FCC legal (atleast EIRP limits) and net edicate (no NAT, no UCE, etc) WISPs. My background is from a small ISP. We were nothing more then a few PortMasters, BSDI boxes and a huge RBOC mux. Sure, we hovered around 500 customers; sure, we didn't have a dedicated webmaster to use the latest JavaScript eyecandy, sure, we didn't have an Internet Explorer binary that says "Powered by xyz ISP"; BUT, we did provide amazing customer support. We did visit homes and small businesses to get connectivity working correctly, free of charge. We taught monthly classes on mIRC, Microsoft's new Frontpage vs. HomeSite, the works. We provided discounts for the local computer user groups. We wouldn't markup InterNIC domain registrations. Yes, small ISPs (Wired and/or Wireless) provide a value-add. Unfortunately, successful ones tend to get bigger, with customer support draining. Bay Area favorites include zoom, best, aimnet, tlgnet, etc. However, your attack on hotspot's is little frustrating. T-Mobile isn't the only "hotspoter" and Boingo isn't the only "aggregator". I won't get into the argument over the model of aggregators, but do flip over your ATM card, notice the Plus/Star/etc. logos... This model has been proven to work and will not go away. I'm not in support of it, though; but I still like my friends who run Linux too. As for the hotspot companies themselves, I think you need to do a lot more research. Not all of "them" are marketing to the rich tie suit exec at the airport or suite hotel. Infact, I know of a few who are actually making money; I contract for one. As with any buildout, it's important to "cookie cutter" solutions. Dropping a T1 and a rack of Cisco equipment isn't a cost effective cookie. Especially for an emerging industry. As for WISPs and Hotspot'ers working together, it's been a dynamite experience for us. They tend to have a clue about their network (since they build the entire infrastructure) and it's simply a question of channel coordination and IP settings. We plug a box on their network and suddently it becomes a fly trap. -- Matt Peterson Bay Area Wireless Users Group Founder <http://www.bawug.org/> -- -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
