Eric Lin describes his Wi-Fi roaming woes: He pays $30 a month for T-Mobile hot spot service but isn't traveling as much as he used to. He lives in San Francisco where many of the previously free local cafes have now banded together to charge $15 a month to use any of them. Too bad he can't pay just one subscription so he can get on networks at home and when traveling.
We're at that point in the market where roaming deals have to speed up or the folks trying to make money from hot spots won't get enough customers and we'll start seeing them die off. The Jupiter study from last week that found 1 percent of computer users paying for Wi-Fi is making me nervous. People aren't paying because there aren't good subscription plans available.