Is a WiFi hotspot business profitable?

[Charly]

Hey guys, I know somebody who runs a mall and they've asked me if it'll be profitable to sell WiFi like AlwaysOn? What do you guys think? I didn't think so because I've never paid for WiFi in my life but maybe you guys have a different opinion?

Thanks

 

[Thor]

I've looked into it, run a small trail in a few locations

I couldn't make it viable unless your the only guy in town, like in Gordhans bay or some other far off place.

Here in Tygerfalls, although a lot of customers in a very small(density) area, they are all connected and paying less than you could provide for.

 

[Charly]

Hmmm. Thanks. But that's residential paid WiFi? I'm referring to WiFi in a public place like a mall.

 

[PsyWulf]

Most businesses offer it as a value-add for free to entice customers
or you have the likes of Always-on in just about every mall or large public area

So your competition is free and highly available - means your business would have to provide either Niche where there is nobody else,or cheaper where there is competition

If you can entice businesses to offer Wifi to their customers for free/cheap by presenting an easy-to-use simple setup that can be done just about anywhere you might be able to get a piece of the pie,biggest issues with in-house Wifi is generally hardware failure/configuration issues/network degradation