Wireless Hotspot Users Wasting Money Unnecessarily May 23, 2007
Posted by trutechie in Uncategorized.trackback
Wireless hotspot users are not getting value for money for service access as they are wasting minutes unnecessarily, according to Trustive, Europe’s leading wireless hotspot access provider. This along with: businesses failing to have a policy on hotspot access; Wi-Fi access becoming an important factor in hotel selection; Voice over IP (VoIP) will be the ‘killer application’ for Wi-Fi hotspots within 12 months; hotspot usage is on the increase; and Asia Pac operators falling behind on adopting WISPr, are some of the key findings from the second, annual Trustive WLAN Roaming Research 2007 launched today at the Wireless Event, Olympia.
Bram Jan Streefland, managing director and co-founder of Trustive, says: “The survey shows that many end users are paying excessively on a per minute basis. Around 60 percent are opting for ad hoc methods of purchasing wireless services such as scratch cards or vouchers, which are often sold in hour-long blocks. With just over half of end users averaging a session times of 30 minutes or less, it means that about half of the time purchased is wasted and users are unnecessarily losing unused minutes. No wonder that 70 percent of respondents believe pricing to be expensive and not offering value for money. It is also why Trustive’s ‘per second billing’ and innovative pooled subscriptions are proving such a success.”
Currently, 45 percent of operator revenues come from voucher and credit card payments compared to 32 percent from subscriptions, a figure which has risen from 28 percent in 2006.
Streefland says: “We anticipate that subscription levels will continue to grow over the next 12-18 months. For end users the three most important things when purchasing subscription schemes are coverage, price and easy connectivity. Certainly the first and third are improving dramatically as the number of hotspots, aggregators and roaming agreements grow and client software becomes available like our HotSpotter with its easy one-click access. It is interesting to note that for pre-paid services, end users are saying that price, validity period and minimum spend are more important than quality of service. This may mean that there is little impetus for operators to provide quality service to those customers, which is a concern. It is also interesting that 65 percent of users would ideally like a free service, but they also want to connect easily via a fast well msecured connection. Beggars can’t be choosers!”
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