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| Tuesday, 29 May 2007 | |
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Wi-Fi public access users wasting money says new survey…
Wireless hotspot users are not getting value for money for service access because they are wasting minutes unnecessarily, according to European wireless hotspot access provider Trustive. Other findings of the second, annual Trustive WLAN Roaming Research 2007 launched last week at Imago’s Wireless Event, held at Olympia in London were: businesses are failing to have a policy on hotspot access; Wi-Fi access is 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 are falling behind on adopting Wireless Internet Service Provider roaming (WISPr). "The survey shows that many end users are paying excessively on a per minute basis. Around 60% 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,” says Bram Jan Streefland, managing director and co-founder of Trustive. “No wonder that 70% of respondents believe pricing to be expensive and not offering value for money.” Trustive itself offers 'per second billing' and pooled subscriptions. Trustive says that currently, 45% of Wi-Fi operator revenues come from voucher and credit card payments compared to 32% from subscriptions, a figure which has risen from 28% in 2006. "We anticipate that subscription levels will continue to grow over the next 12 to 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,” asserts Streefland. “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% of users would ideally like a free service, but they also want to connect easily via a fast well secured connection. Beggars can't be choosers". The Trustive survey also found that the majority – 85% – of respondents control the purse strings themselves when it comes to hotspot use, rather than their place of employment. This is despite the fact that 60% use wireless hotspots to access their work's intranet or the corporate network. "It is not surprising that we are seeing costs for Wi-Fi getting out of control for some companies. They have employees out on the road or at airports buying expensive ad hoc services and then coming back with a fistful of receipts. It makes cost control and transparency virtually impossible. Organisations also get people using company laptops at hotspots and operating outside of the business IT policy. This obviously has implications," continues Streefland. Keeping up-to-date when on the move and increasing productivity are seen as the two biggest benefits of hotspot access at 30% and 25% respectively. The report further suggests that end-users want hotspot connectivity wherever they are. The results show 33% use hotspots all over the world, 37% nationally, and 30% close to home. The three most popular places to use Wi-Fi hotspots are bars or cafés (31%), hotels (27%) and airports (22%). In fact, 45% of end users say they select their hotel based on whether Wi-Fi is available. The report also marks the advent of metro-wide hotspots, highlighting 5% of all hotspots now being of this type. VoIP – to be or not to be the killer app? Trustive reports that voice over IP (VoIP) will be the 'killer application' for Wi-Fi hotspots within 12 months according to operators. However, end-user research reveals that there is still some way to go before this becomes a reality, as e-mail and Internet usage still dominate. Of those who responded, 62% and 56% respectively always use hotspots for e-mail and Internet access, compared to only 23% who say the same for cheap calls. The results of the operator research suggest a maturing market, with 48% of hotspots now operating over 50 sessions per day, compared to only 36% in 2006. Changes to the numbers of roaming agreements also suggest a maturing market – 66% of service providers have roaming agreements with international operators, up from 42% in 2006, and 51% have the same on a local scale, an increase of 11% on last year. Additionally, 82% of operators have at least one roaming agreement with a hotspot access provider or aggregator. Additionally, average connection speeds are increasing – 61% of hotspots now have a connection speed of 2Mbp/s or greater, up from 39% a year ago. Streefland explains: "This increase in connection speeds shows that the market is becoming more serious and operators are looking to provide applications such as VoIP over Wi-Fi in addition to just access. We also expect WiMax to become more widespread in future years as the technology and standards become more widely adopted." Fewer Chinese WISPrs According to the operator research, on average 58% already have a network that is fully compliant with the WISPr specification that aims to facilitate simple, one-click access to wireless hotspots. Of those whose network is not compliant, 60% plan to do so within 12 months. However, this figure masks some substantial discrepancies. In Europe a far higher number are committed to WISPr, with 67% being fully compliant compared to only 42% in the John Williamson |
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