Curt Sampson wrote:
> On Tue, 9 Jul 2002, Ken Chang wrote:
>
> > I agree that billing is a problem but even in the mobile world,
> > the billing records, agents, and clearing houses are one of
> > the areas of the least standardized. in the worst case, all
> > the providers build their own access points and that's at least
> > not as bad as PHS.
>
> It seems to me far, far worse than PHS. Please explain to me, in
> detail, what happens when five different WLAN providers decide to
> provide public 802.11b service in the area around Shibuya station.
> How do they avoid RF conflicts?
How do they avoid conflicts? They don't. I thought that much
was clearly understood by everyone. Three co-located access
points is all that 802.11b will stand. If net access attracts
customers, then we'll start seeing RJ-45 jacks at each table
when the frequencies become too congested.
> How do they make sure that their
> own customers easily get on to the correct network? How do they
> deal with other customers who are not subscribers to their network?
> Now add several private users' office networks to the situation
> and what happens?
Best effort "service", that's what happens... which is why smart
shop owners will setup three access points at each facility.
> > less than 3,000 yen a month (plus electricity), anyone can provide
> > a WLAN hotspot, doesn't that sound scary?
Sounds wonderfully, deliciously scary. Bring it on. I, for one,
can't wait until the world has been flooded with poorly configured
wireless access points connected to broadband internet connections.
> >... and you have to keep
> > drinking while working with your notebook, then why should we mind
> > billing at all?
>
> Who says people will keep drinking? When I go into a cafe and buy a cup
> of coffee, I drink it and leave. If I've got 802.11b Internet access,
> though, I'll stay for longer using it, though I won't buy another cup of
> coffee. Thus, this investment has made things worse for the owner, not
> better.
Ah, well... I think we're experiencing bean-counter mentality here...
There's a lot to be said for "appearances" and at ~100,00yen per month,
802.11b is one of the cheaper buys in the "appearance" market.
A specific example? Recently an coffee shop opened up. They serve
overpriced scones and a second-rate coffee, but they have a well
connected 802.11b access point. When I go to this shop, I buy as
little of the food and drink as I can, but stay for as long as my
laptop battery will hold out (I usually go there to download very
large binaries via various P2P nets). "Net" effect? The parking
lot and shop is *always* full (which is the only thing that keeps me
from just sitting in my car with my laptop). In general, I think a
full shop is the best kind of advertising that any food serving
facility can hope to have. ~100,00yen per month isn't even entry
level in the Japanese advertising market.
Received on Sun Jul 14 13:38:10 2002