Sacramento airport gets Wi-Fi for $110,000: I'm so glad that airport authorities are starting to talk about the actual cost of providing service. I've been in the Sacramento airport and it's itsy-bitsy: I would be surprised if more than a dozen access points were needed, and only that many because of some odd twists and turns. The authority will pay for the cost from its share of revenue with the service provider. They're hoping for 35 users a day at $6.95.
Of course, they don't understand the market by expecting that much money over three years in that way. If they resell access to their airport to aggregators and to other networks, they might have 200 to 300 people per day use it and maybe get 50 cents to a buck per user today. Over time, perhaps several hundred users will employ it daily given the airport's volume, and they'll get only pennies per session.
If they fail to resell access, then their plan is doomed as EDGE and other cellular services ramp up. If I have a fixed monthly plan and can get 100 Kbps for "free" or pay $6.95 for 1.5 Mbps or something similar, which do I choose? Medium-speed 2.5G will certainly threaten islands of connectivity.
"While wireless access is increasingly common at airports, few feature networks that cover the entire airport, said Rick Schiffmann, the CEO for Airport Network Solutions Inc., a San Francisco company that set up the Sacramento Wi-Fi service. Sacramento is the company's first customer for its airport wireless network, he said."
Rick Schiffmann was the original biz dev guy at Cometa. I encountered him while I was the biz dev guy at Rocksteady Networks. One day his email started bouncing and there was a new biz dev person, Carol. Now I know where Rick landed.
Hi there:
I noticed a few comments on the Sacramento Wi-Fi network. These comments do not reflect a full understanding of the airport's Wi-Fi needs or our business model. If anyone would like to learn more, please feel free to contact me directly at rschiffmann@airportwins.com or send an email to info@airportwins.com.
Regards,
Rick Schiffmann