Best ISP package for Hotel HotSpot

J

jlct021

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Hi

10 Stories, +- 67 rooms, need an ISP package that wont disappoint.

Access Points already in place. (+- 3 per floor)

Neotel's 5mbps NeoBroadband Fibre option seems great but have heard conflicting reports:

http://downloads.neotel.co.za/pdf/017052 NeoBroadband Fibre Fact Sheet.pdf

Am considering MWEB's 10mbps Unshaped Uncapped Business deal at R2999

http://www.mweb.co.za/productspricing/2/Business/Connectivity/Uncapped_ADSL.aspx

As have only heard good things re MWEB's service and support.

Anyone here with exp of a setup this size who can comment on weather or not the MWEB option "should" suffice?

Thanks
 
Hi There,
Having done a fair bit of hotel travelling and connecting, the one that I have come across most is from Internet Solutions.
It is important to remember that you are offering a service. Many guests are prepared to pay for the service basesd on their usage and if they move to different hotels then the same user account can be used at different hotels. For me this is a service that you outsource and get a cut of the revenue that is generated from the offering.
Were you going to make it free? If so the MWEB will be fine. If you are going to charge for it how were you going to measure usage?

Regards

Tim
 
Hi Tim

My suggestion to the Hotel was make it free and add the costs into their fee's.

However they want to charge for it; specifically by selling vouchers based on usage ie per MB not time so they can recover the costs of the setup over time.

Given this I will be installing Ubiquiti Unifi Access Points throughout the building that come out the box with Unifi management software. Nice thing about this is it allows for Voucher creation but unfortunately based on time only. I found a hack on their forums from someone who has modified the code to allow for Quota based vouchers but am reluctant to deploy this in a production environment. Hopefully in later releases it will come standard with this feature.

My solution to this is Antamedia HotSpot Software $599

http://www.antamedia.com/hotspot/

Premium Edition as they do not require guests to purchase themselves via Credit Card, only by way of Vouchers at the front desk from staff. I've found a company who will support this for them by way of an SLA for about R900pm (so am outsourcing it as you suggested)

My roll out plan consists of 4 part;

1) Cabling - Outsourced - 25 points at R530 each - R13250 - need to get some more quotes on this still
2) network - Myself
3) Hotspot - Outsourced - based on the lack of a suitable free solution that can allocate quota's
4) ISP - Outsourced - has to be a solid solution with good support - if not I'll be the one being called which I want to avoid

Any suggestions welcome

Thanks
 
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hi Jlct021,
Sounds like you have come up with a good solution. Cabling is never a cheap part of the solution. But I do have some contacts around who might be able to help. Which area is the hotel in?
For the ISP you can also look at MTN. I can have one of my colleagues contact you if you want?

Regards
Tim
Tim
 
Thanks Tim

Must say I hadn't considered MTN or Vodacom as as ISP option; I guess I always think 3G when I do.

Are you referring to their Fibre option(s)?
 
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After speaking with an Internet Solutions / Always On Rep, their package seems it could do the trick.

24 months contract, +- R2000 pm, ADSL line not inc, Access Points / Setup inc

Seems they take a 4mbps line, allocate 1mb of it to complimentary access for guests while hotel itself and paying guests utilize the rest. Hotel gets to keep +- 15% of the com for bandwidth sold. (via vouchers)

Has anyone here had any experience of using Always On as their HotSpot provider? (or as a user in a hotel etc)
 
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