There’s been an explosion in growth of Wi-Fi hotspots during the last several years. Best-guess estimates range from 33,000 WLAN hotspots worldwide to more than 250,000 at present. (That’s mainly because service providers, themselves, are unsure how many hotspots they have in operation, says an industry analyst.)
Driving that demand, customers now expect wireless LAN connectivity inside everything from restaurants to airports, hotels and hospitals. (To read about the Wi-Fi strategies at Starbucks, McDonald’s, Borders and Panera Bread, see “Should Retailers Offer Free Wi-Fi to Customers?”)
But what also has become part of customers’ expectations: Free Wi-Fi.
According to recent In-Stat survey data, nearly 50 per cent of respondents said they would only use a free hotspot. Cost is one factor, notes Daryl Schoolar, a senior analyst at In-Stat, in an e-mail. But what also factors into customers reluctance to pay for the service is their perception of a lack of value. “You pay $X dollars per session, and you can only use it at a few locations,” he says.
In addition, the proliferation of free Wi-Fi hotspots, Schoolar notes, “makes it challenging to get people to pay.”
It’s not surprising, then, that In-Stat data showed that hotspot access revenues are not keeping pace with usage growth. “The explosion of free sites is really driving the market,” Schoolar says. “Wi-Fi grows like a weed, it shows up in areas you never expect.”
