42% public WiFi users are ready to pay for the access
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City Council are jumping into the citywide WiFi networks mania. But do city residents share the dream? Let’s say that they are getting more and more hooked. A new Jupiter Research study confirms the growth, indicating that the online population accessing the Internet though public WiFi hotspots now represents 20% in 2005 against 14% in 2004, so an increase of 43%.
The same study also clearly pinpoints some factors that could ease the switch to muni WiFi:
58% of online public Wi-Fi users use hotspots only when they are free. That will not help much Google and Earthlink to choose the right business model.
Lack of equipment. And when people do buy some WiFi antenna, they might just not know how to handle it. This is what happens to CyberSpot. According to TMCNet, subscribers of this wireless system don’t find it reliable, which in fact, is false, but people ignore how to tune their computers.
Low user need. While business users might get the most of the network, they don’t stay very long in one zone.
The research paper also insists on concentration on business users. They are most likely to pay for use, but there isn’t enough frequent use to drive adoption of subscription models yet. All these informations tends to conclude that the Fon’s business model might be the most interesting one for hotspot owners. What do you think?
Update (April 14, 2006) ― Another report, this time rolled out by Research & Markets, confirms the WiFi growth. Here what it says: “The Wireless LAN (WLAN) chipset market is expected to reach just over 140 million annual chipset unit shipments in 2005, representing a phenomenal annual growth rate of a little over 50%. Chipset revenues are expected to reach almost $1 billion, representing a 27% annual revenue growth rate. Furthermore, the Wi-Fi chipset market is expected to grow to 430 million annual chipset shipments in 2009.”
Apr 13, 2006 | By Nuno
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[…] Here. I’m kind of excited. Cyclelicious used one once. So did Timmy. […]