On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 5:12 PM, Mr O <[email protected]> wrote:
> In regards to the businesses putting out for equipment, in this economy and > the margins many establishments get by on, especially food outlets that > typically provide free WiFi they may not want to stretch their offering out > to the whole town. A placement page is a nice idea but is it really going to > drive business to locations that aren't already getting it? I can see factors cutting in opposite directions here: [i] a mesh network in effect extends the range of a hot spot so people have less motivation to travel to a business for an optimum connection; and [ii] some percentage of residents will be more likely to patronize a sponsor because of gratitude. > Your best bets will come from enthusiastic individuals who are willing to > prop up antennas and spend their own monies to do this. Perhaps a mix of both? One correspondent from Portland's Personal Telco (<http://www.personaltelco.net/>) said that providing internet access is their largest ongoing expense. The operators of local hotspots already have this. While I haven't done an exhaustive study, I suspect that most ISPs in the area have terms of use that prohibit use of their bandwidth by anyone other than by their subscribers. Those that don't have such provisions would probably add it soon after this project gets off the ground. For example, Comcast has these two prohibitions in its residential terms of use forbidding subscribers to: " -- resell the Service or otherwise make available to anyone outside the Premises the ability to use the Service (for example, through wi-fi or other methods of networking), in whole or in part, directly or indirectly. The Service is for personal and non-commercial residential use only and you agree not to use the Service for operation as an Internet service provider or for any business enterprise or purpose (whether or not for profit); "-- connect the Comcast Equipment to any computer outside of your Premises" <http://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Customers/Policies/HighSpeedInternetAUP.html>. Comcast has similar language for business accounts, requiring a separate agreement to allow piggy-backing connections. <http://business.comcast.com/terms-conditions/index.aspx>. I don't know much that is relevant about the ISP business or technology, but internet access is a problem that we need to solve. > All of that is just my $0.07 (adjusted for inflation). :-) Best regards, Paul _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
