On Sat, 30 Apr 2005, Dana Spiegel wrote: > > There's no free reliable wifi anywhere in the market area, so this > > question *now* is premature. I'll tell you that we both will lose a > > large portion of our market if free reliable wifi becomes standard. > > This is a misrepresentation, Alex. Right now, we have a number of > "stable" means of getting free wi-fi. I say stable, since you are right > that it isn't reliable. However, I have spoken to quite a number of > people (and some of these are people I work with), who do without ANY > broadband because they can suck free wireless off their neighbors. > There will always be a significant population who don't need "reliable" > the way that you refer to it, and for those and others, today offers > enough free wireless coverage. I also speak with other people who use > the NYCw parks as their only broadband connection. The parks are very > stable and reliable. Okay, fine. Now, tell me, what is your estimate of city coverage of this 'stable' free broadband? 1%? 2%? 5%?
Like I said, it isn't enough to be noticeable for existing traditional ISPs or make any noticeable difference at this point. > Now, the other thing you mention here is also a misrepresentation: the > existence of free reliable wifi throughout a city area. Quite frankly, > for larger cities, this won't exist for a number of years, if at all. > SF, Philly, LA, Boston, are all looking at plans that require some form > of subscription. I think the important thing to realize is that any > sustainable plan will require subscriptions from the regular users > (either paid to city or paid to ISPs who use centralized > infrastructure. Free really only comes into play when we're talking That's not what the "other" half of nycwireless supports (see posts from all the <insert adjective here> clamoring for my tax dollars to be used to provide them with free intarweb). > about public spaces and transient users (like tourists). Besides, even > if there were fully free wi-fi, you would _still_ have a business in > providing support (something that all users need, and that you are > highly qualified to provide) and added services. And plenty of other > things an ISP can provide, like security services, etc. Again, don't tell me what my business "should" be. Instead, try to avoid taking my tax dollars to establish yet another monopoly that would make competition impossible. Philly plan is reasonable in that sense - however, that's not what the "other" half of nycwireless wants. -alex -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
