frogfoot wifi hotspot

Ah ok so the crux is in "LAN's shall be confined to the same premises/buildings." And what it defines...

but in all other aspects it is fine, for a person to resell his/her adsl connection and bandwidth within the confides of the law?

Except of course if Telkom defines somewhere in their usage agreement or something that their product my not be resold in any circumstances? Am I correct in assuming this?

But the fact that Telkom has no real SLA in place makes me think they can't have any such stipulations in place...
 
Aha

Now we are getting to the real crux - self-provision rather than hotspots!

I suggest you look at http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Telecoms/3489.html to see what the industry is up to on that one.

Or get your friendly local PTN licensee to spot you some self-provisioning potential.

Until of course ICASA finalises the licence conversion process and then we go again :D
 
Wow, how my little thread has grown ;) I just wanted to know a small thing and it exploded in to a wealth of information way beyond the scope I initially intended it!

Ok so from what I understand FrogFoot are within the law as I suspected and that it is ok for you to share your adsl with the neighbours and even to earn a few bucks whilst doing it...
- As long as you do not self provide the service but "resell" it?
- and another grey area is the reach or put better the radius in which it is acceptable? according to "...a lan will only span premises?..." stated in the ECT.

Because how does it differ from say Restaurants and airports and even Vodacom who provide internet over Wifi, in other words "Hotspot" providers...

Thank you very much for everybody who contributed to this thread, it really made things very clear and answered my question 10 times over! A special big thanks to the legal experts mike@ and dominic for their valuable input and feedback!!

This just shows how invaluable of a resource the myBroadband forums are, experts reside here, free advice you can not get any better!!
 
Hi ASS_SAZiN`

Thanks for your comments on the Frogfoot website design.

About EIRP and Hotspot radius, the key there is not to use a more powerful antenna than 6dbi. Have a look at the <a href="http://www.wapa.org.za/about/code-of-conduct/">WAPA</a> code of conduct if you want to learn more. Our standard Hotspot device ships with a 2.2dbi omni, but it's easy to upgrade to a set of 5.5dbi antennas.

The real value we add is in the billing engine.. credit cards, easy sign-up, debit orders, scratch cards, commission payments, stats etc. The Wifi part is pretty simple and standard.. Linksys AP and an ADSL modem.

It's legal. The graphic on the Wifi service page does "push the envelope" on what people have accepted to be legal in the past.. but we did get good legal advice before we started using it.
 
JoeFrog said:
Hi ASS_SAZiN`

Thanks for your comments on the Frogfoot website design.

About EIRP and Hotspot radius, the key there is not to use a more powerful antenna than 6dbi. Have a look at the <a href="http://www.wapa.org.za/about/code-of-conduct/">WAPA</a> code of conduct if you want to learn more. Our standard Hotspot device ships with a 2.2dbi omni, but it's easy to upgrade to a set of 5.5dbi antennas.

The real value we add is in the billing engine.. credit cards, easy sign-up, debit orders, scratch cards, commission payments, stats etc. The Wifi part is pretty simple and standard.. Linksys AP and an ADSL modem.

It's legal. The graphic on the Wifi service page does "push the envelope" on what people have accepted to be legal in the past.. but we did get good legal advice before we started using it.
Click to expand...

Hi JoeFrog,

Cool I was wondering when a "frog" was going to show up ;)

Yes upon further investigation into your site it seams very clear that, you focus on the billing aspect more, and from the looks of it, it seams to be very well planed and executed! This is exactly why I didn't want to "Share" my ADSL at first for me to go and fiddle in the iptables and use something like bandwidthd or ulog, just to see how much each user is using, then comes the billing of it all, it is a complex process, one which takes time and effort to implement and develop, and why you made a product out of the process!

Again kudos, I think if not already, then soon you will become a very successful business!
 
Thanks ASS_SAZiN`

It was at least 6 months of work to get it to version 1.0. We're about to start a next round of development to improve the system based on user feedback and wish-list requests.
 
I think this is a real great idea. You should spend more time marketing this concept, I am online frequently and this is the first I've heard of Frogfoot.

I think it can be a nice cashcow, especially in Gauteng with all the millions of townhouses everywhere...
 
Talking about this, there are several companies offering this service. One of them is nerdsonsite.
 
Hey CharlesM

There is an agent option where you earn 20% of the profit for introducing new hotspot operators. Maybe you know people in Gauteng who would like to do this.

At the moment most of our hotspots are in Cape Town and Potch. It's working well in student areas.

http://maps.amobia.com/wifi/

Amobia uses the same billing engine, which Frogfoot designed.

Amobia = outdoor
Frogfoot = ~indoor
 
JoeFrog said:
Hey CharlesM

There is an agent option where you earn 20% of the profit for introducing new hotspot operators. Maybe you know people in Gauteng who would like to do this.

At the moment most of our hotspots are in Cape Town and Potch. It's working well in student areas.

http://maps.amobia.com/wifi/

Amobia uses the same billing engine, which Frogfoot designed.

Amobia = outdoor
Frogfoot = ~indoor
Click to expand...

I'm really going to have a look at this, seems viable if it can be well priced, etc.
 
The end-user wifi pricing is here:
http://www.frogfoot.com/consumer-services/wifi/

Pre-paid products offer "roll-over" traffic. It uses a uniform pricing model across all hotspots, so users don't get ripped off when they go to a upmarket coffee shop as with some of the other hotspot networks. Pricing is much lower than 3G. We support scratch cards... all designed to be simple and convenient.
 
Damn interesting business idea. If it is illegal it shouldn't be. :)
 
antowan said:
Damn interesting business idea. If it is illegal it shouldn't be. :)
Click to expand...
As dominic mentioned - running a hotspot within a single building or property is not illegal and I don't know of anyone who has challenged that.

Hotspots are an extremely reliable way of giving users of laptops and other personal electronic Internet devices cost effective internet access that often outperforms 3G type services. :)
 
SoftDux said:
why not just DIY instead?
Click to expand...
The problem with DIY is that you end up with a lot of wasted resources. Setting up billing servers properly with all the web back-ends and front-ends is not trivial and its overkill if you only going to have one hotspot connected to it.

There is a lot more to it than just putting down an AP and installing a captive portal. If you want a system with a good feature set and a user friendly interface then rather go with someone who has setup up a few hotspots. ;)
 
What you're saying is true, for new people to this kind of setup. Someone who doesn't know these basics should probably not even get into a wireless business.

But, you get ready to use wifi hotspots, already setup with all the billing software, etc.
 
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