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July 15, 2008

Wee-Fi: Kentucky Town-Fi; Exorbitant Hotel-Fi

By Glenn Fleishman

Kentucky town shaves 97 percent of Wi-Fi network cost: The town of Prestonsburg, Kent., thought a city-wide Wi-Fi network could help attract tourists and businesses, while expanding remote access for telemedicine and other purposes. But Government Technology reports that the first estimates for building a network were from $48,000 to $248,000. They opted to use Meraki’s mesh gear and spent $8,500 instead, covering just a 2-mi stretch of their downtown. About 2/3rds was for the equipment, the rest for DSL connections and marketing. The service is free and has no ads at present.

Portfolio critiques crazy hotel Wi-Fi pricing: The travel guru that is Joe Brancatelli turns a steely eye to $15 per night charges at fancy hotels for Internet access, noting that cheaper hotels include such service at no cost. The higher-end hotels won’t talk for attribution, but they say that a “fraction” of guests use Internet, so why bundle it into the room rate? Pshaw. At $15 per night, four to six users pay the entire cost, while the hotel or its operator accepts a fraction of that rate as settlement from Boingo and iPass and other aggregators. So it’s nonsense. They charge because business travelers will expense it and be reimbursed.

Posted by Glennf at July 15, 2008 11:06 AM

Categories: Wee-Fi

Comments

Posted by: Robert J Berger at July 26, 2008 4:50 PM

Posted by: M.Wheeler at July 15, 2008 6:12 PM

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