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At the beginning of the year Canadians thought hotspots
were trendy bars.
Today the word means cafes, hotels, airports, hospitals
as well as trendy bars offering wireless
Internet connectivity.
Credit for the explosion in WiFi identity in large
part goes to pioneer public hotspot providers like Vancouver's
FatPort, Ottawa's BoldStreet, Toronto's Spotnik and
Hotspotz, aided by the recent availability of WiFi-equipped
mobile devices.
The business models vary (Hotspotz are free but users
have to watch an ad, the others charge) and it isn't
clear which will survive. As Sean O'Mahony, Fatport
CEO said earlier this year, "The question I'm asked
is where is the money in (public)
WiFi? Well, there isn't any."
Still, in August the company had 85 locations and predicted
it will have 200 by the end of the year. And it's been
imaginative in pricing: The latest is a $300 all-you-can-use
annual plan. It's even done a deal to offer WiFi service
for an extra $1 a month to a subscribers' cable bill.
Every month more hotspots open: Spotnik (backed in
part by Telus Mobility) has signed up Timothy's cafes,
BoldStreet is in Denny's restaurants, FatPort is being
tested in hospitals. But the industry may see a leap
in interest if wireless carriers can agree to deliver
a promised roaming agreement, which would give paying
users even more location choices.
Channel models are also changing. Spotnik co-CEO Murray
McCaig said over the summer he hopes to switch from
signing up customers to selling through carriers. The
SeaBoard Group estimates the overall WiFi products and
services market in Canada (including use of the technology
in homes and businesses) will grow to $800 million by
2007, the kind of news resellers want to hear.
As the technology's visibility increases, analysts
say, so will the demand for businesses to adopt it,
followed by home users.
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