Free Internet?
I recently read in a computer magazine “a computer without a broadband internet connection is not a computer!” While a somewhat tongue-in-cheek statement, it illustrates how ingrained internet and access to email is in our daily life. With very few businessmen able to be away from their offices without a notebook and remote access to the internet, one would think that hotels, convention and conference centres, and even coffee shops would offer free internet to attract customers!
Currently in South Africa that is a faint hope. Instead hotels, conference and convention centres charge exorbitant prices for a very limited and often very poor service. Are they taking their customers for a ride; ripping them off? To pay up to R80 for one hour access is totally ridiculous. In the USA one would pay that for a 24-hour true broadband access.
Often in convention centres and hotels one has to move to the lobby to get connected. Those who offer internet connectivity in the conference room provide so little bandwidth that once a few people have logged on, the available bandwidth drops to less than that offered by a dial-up at home.
In South Africa free internet in coffee shops is not the norm. Take the Starbucks chain in the USA – it offers its customers free broadband internet at most of its coffee shops. It is clearly an additional attraction to get customers through the door.
When it comes to convention centres one would have thought that good broadband access should be one of the main features. If one considers the cost of offering it in relation to other operational costs, the free internet access portion is insignificant. But instead offering what today is regarded as a basic service, they outsource it to a service provider, for whom it is a profit centre.
Discussing this with Arthur Goldstuck of World Wide Worx, a leading independent technology research organisation, he said that an interesting trend amongst budget hotels is to offer free broadband to their guests. It clearly is paying off in increasing their occupancy rates. He sees a trend where businessmen shop around for hotels that offer broadband as part of their accommodation package.
Perhaps it is too late for hotels and conference venues to use broadband access as a marketing tool. With cellular companies offering 3G broadband connectivity at very attractive rates for local travellers, it has become a much better option, both in terms of bandwidth and cost.
There are however limitations as cellular coverage. Inside large concrete structures it is not always available, unless gap fillers are installed. At a recent conference at the Wild Coast Sun, the cellular signal in the rooms was so poor that GPRS connectivity was hardly available.
3G is not always an economic option when travelling overseas as the per meg cost charge is many times that charged by South African cellular operators. Perhaps Goldstuck’s idea of shopping around for accommodation where broadband access is part of the deal would be preferable.
Right now many of us are still at the mercy of hotels and conference centres and have to dig deep into our pockets to stay connected when travelling.
Free Internet? give your views
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