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June 30, 2003

Hot Spot Bubble to Burst?

By Glenn Fleishman

Investors and analysts are starting to get cold feet, but wireless ISPs keep on pushing: This article is full of excellent subtlety in balancing the views of the folks with money or advising those with it, and the companies who have banked on building it so the users would come. (It’s also a sort of who’s who at the end of 802.11 Planet attending companies and people.)

Here’s one good statistic that’s not widely known: Richard Snyder of Concourse Communications, the group that’s managing the build-out and operation (but not billing and authentication) of Wi-Fi and cell at Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York/New Jersey airports, and others, said on a panel on airports that I moderated at 802.11 Planet that the “hockey stick” effect is finally kicking in.

Snyder noted that over the last year since they unwired Minneapolis/St. Paul’s terminals, they saw very steady usage, no real spurts. Following the Centrino announcement, however, April and May each had significant double-digit growth — over 15 percent last month.

I’ll be curious to see if providers like Boingo, Wayport, and T-Mobile HotSpot decide to release similar numbers, if they’re seeing that sort of usage. If the hockey stick is here, it only requires a few companies to confirm it for the tide to shift from “cold spots” back to “hot hot hot!”

Posted by Glennf at June 30, 2003 7:31 AM

Categories: Hot Spot

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» Tiny Bubbles from Digital Common Sense
All this talk of bubbles bursting has sent strains of Don Ho wafting through my ears. Or maybe that's just the wind whistling. Let me send a clue from world of physics. A bubble doesn't burst until it achieves sufficient size. WiFi is still gaining cr... [Read More]

Tracked on June 30, 2003 9:38 AM

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