Features

Band leaders

25 Apr 2007 by business traveller

Most laptops and many PDAs now include wifi within their specifications, enabling users to access broadband-speed internet on the move. The number of hotels, airports, train stations and cafes across Europe with wifi hotspots is increasing all the time, and this has led to a surge in the number of service providers and aggregators entering the market.

This competition will undoubtedly push down prices, but also leads to confusion, with a wide range of companies all eager for a slice of the public wifi sector. If you're not already a subscriber with a network provider like T-Mobile or BT, should you opt for an aggregator or even adopt a corporate-wide policy? And exactly who partners with whom in this increasingly crowded market?

An aggregator is a company that brings together hotspots from a number of providers, with the aim of creating a large network of available hotspots for their customers. Also known as an "access provider", Boingo is one such example, with over 60,000 hotspots under its umbrella worldwide – 10,500 of these available in the UK to its mainly US subscribers.

Boingo partners with network providers such as BT Openzone and Japan Telecom to allow subscribers to roam on to any of its partner hotspots, creating a network far larger than that which a single provider could offer.

Trustive offers a similar Europe-focused service, with 25,000 hotspots currently available, and a projected 40,000 by the third quarter of this year. Bram Jan Streefland, managing director and co-founder, says: "Our first criteria is to expand our network as much as possible, although hotspot providers have to meet certain technical specifications to ensure access will work properly – for instance there has to be a certain amount of bandwidth available. But we won't say no to a provider just because they only have five hotspots in the middle of Poland, as our goal is to provide the end user with as many hotspots as possible."

Streefland says Trustive does not hide the fact that it uses multiple partners to create its network, but stresses that its key benefits are per-second billing (eliminating the voucher trap where users buy an hour pass but end up only using ten minutes of it), and the fact that users only need one username and password to access the internet, regardless of which partner hotspot they are using.

In terms of numbers, US-based iPass takes some beating: boasting over 76,000 hotspots worldwide, it offers what it calls "enterprise solutions", allowing employees to access emails, the internet and corporate networks through a remote account at any of its partners' hotspots.

"Our focus is on the enterprise space, so we really want to make sure that we provide a quality network solution," says Doug Loewe, vice-president and managing director EMEA. "In the UK we originally approached T-Mobile, BT and The Cloud, and over the last few years all three said 'yes, we get iPass in terms of offering a solution to the end user'. We bring an incremental revenue stream to these providers because we make it simple for the user to gain access and therefore they use it more."

Loewe describes iPass as a mobility specialist for mobile workers, a layer above an aggregator, and it is a solution that has been taken up by large companies such as General Motors, Nokia and Reuters. By contrast, Trustive targets individuals and smaller companies in Europe. Streefland explains: "Ipass is a competitor and we see them very strongly in the US with Fortune 500 companies, whereas Trustive focuses on SMEs, which represent about 70 per cent of business in Europe. Before Trustive there was no flexible solution [for this group]."

It's with the SMEs in mind that Trustive has launched "Pooled Subscriptions", a service similar to that offered by Vodafone and T-Mobile in the GSM sector which allows companies to split an allowance as they wish between several users, and enables them to report on company wifi expenditure.
"As a management tool it gives control of spending, as the company can see who is using wifi and when," says Streefland. "Costs for 3G and wifi are getting out of hand for some companies – you end up with sales guys coming in with a bundle of receipts, where as with this service none of that is necessary, and the finance director can have a much better view of spendings."

Cost control and transparency are major issues with public wifi access, particularly when users are continuously buying single-use vouchers or logging on abroad. Owen Geddes, director of business development for service provider The Cloud, explains: "Public wifi pricing across Europe is quite high – about £6 per hour. So we introduced our Ultra wifi packages, which offer unlimited use of the network for a single flat rate fee (£11.99 in the UK per month). We'll also be introducing a Europe-wide flat-rate roaming product, but we'll be doing that directly with other operators rather than through an aggregator."

The Cloud's offering has evolved since its conception – originally a purely wholesale operation providing hotspots to network providers, it now owns three-quarters of the hotspots which BT Openzone subscribers log on to. With a ready network of The Cloud-branded hotspots (currently 7,500 in the UK and around 1,000 in Germany), the company decided to enter the retail space, targeting those customers not already subscribing to a service with the likes of BT or T-Mobile, both of which partner with The Cloud, and indeed with each other.

It's these multiple partnerships which can get confusing for the user, and at first glance seem strange for companies which are in direct competition. Trustive's Streefland says: "There are partners we are now working with that in the beginning thought it might be cannibalism to partner with us – they couldn't see the benefits and were hesitant because of the competition. Now they are joining our network because they understand that Trustive can reach the whole of the European market because of our marketing activities, whereas a local operator cannot do that."

Geddes of The Cloud agrees: "With BT, T-Mobile and ourselves, what we are interested in is promoting wifi. It's interesting to see two companies [BT and T-Mobile] which would normally be at each other's throats working together in organisations such as the Wireless Broadband Alliance, which is helping push the whole industry forward and agreeing on common standards on how hotspots operate. For instance, we have a standard called WISPR which ensures that software clients use automated log-ins which will work across the networks – it's about trying to get the user experience working in a way that's predictable for the customer."

Of course, none of this would be necessary if the world of wifi was as tightly controlled as the GSM sector – as Trustive's Streefland puts it: "Hotspots and wifi are an unlicensed spectrum – absolutely anyone can set up a hotspot."

But providers are waking up to the fact that it's not enough to offer a hotspot without ensuring its reliability. Geddes says: "We already have an agreement for North American coverage, along with places like Japan and Hong Kong, but we're not opening them up to customers until we can get a service experience that works really well. What I worry about with public wifi is that you have an account you take abroad, and when you open up the browser it may or may not be in your language, you might have to format your passwords, etc – we're working very closely with our partners to ensure that when you open up your laptop everything works as it normally would."

Many agree that in the future pretty much everyone will partner with everyone else in ever-expanding global wifi networks, which will make added services such as Trustive's Pooled Subscriptions important in giving added value to the product. IPass distinguishes itself from the field by offering a secure corporate solution, and has recently introduced Enterprise flat-rate, enabling companies to predict and budget for usage.

The Cloud has concentrated on innovative extras such as a forthcoming service which will recognise the location of the subscriber's mobile and text them details of their nearest hotspot, as well as revamping its website to make it more customer-focused. It is also rolling out Metro wifi networks, enabling customers to stay connected seamlessly throughout entire cities like Stuttgart, Amsterdam and London, making city-wide video-streaming and VOIP phone calls a possibility.

Of equal importance is recognising where the demand for individual hotspots lies, with hotels and airports leading the way. Meanwhile, hotel and conference specialist iBAHN (which partners with iPass) currently offers hotspots in over 2,600 hotels worldwide, and recently introduced Speed Solution, a two-tier service enabling users to log on to a basic package for free, or use a paid-for premium service.

IPass's Loewe says: "Our customers want to go into a hotel and get wifi access just as they get running water. Airports were early adopters – if you're travelling to a place where people are often stuck or need to arrive early at because of onerous but necessary security procedures, people are now saying 'okay, I don't mind getting to the airport an hour earlier because I can get connected and be productive'."

There's no doubt that the acceptance of wifi as a means of accessing the internet is increasing exponentially – Geddes points out that by the end of last year 45 per cent of broadband connections in the UK "had wifi on the end of it". He adds: "People are getting used to it and that's when public wifi becomes exciting – it's very much about taking your broadband with you."

But there's still plenty to be done to ensure customers know exactly how, where, and with whom to log on in future.