[wplug] Wi-Fi Mapping in the Press

[Drew from Zhrodague]

> I know why more places don't have free Wi-Fi, because it causes money,
> and there are also probles with providing it.  If I owned a bussness I
> would not have free Wi-Fi, ya it sounds great but what about the over
> head cost, and how many people would come and not buy anything and just
> leach off the free internet, removing the tables for paying costomers,
> or lets say you have a coffee house, they come buy a coffee and sit
> there for hours just surfing the web, bandwidth is not free, untill that
> day Wi-Fi will not be free everywhere.

    Exactly these types of attitudes are why some places will never have
free Wi-Fi, and may never have any Wi-Fi at all.

    I think it would actually cost less to buy trashbags for a restaurant
for a year, than it would to buy an AP or two. If you look at things like
napkins, and utensils -- those are provided for free by the shop in order to
make dining a more fun experience. Imagine how many customers an italian
restaurant would have if they provided no napkins due to cost!

    Also, the additional infrastructure to handle the billing and accounting
DOUBLES your infrastructure costs. Taking the Beehive as an example, I
believe they just have DSL piped into APs -- if they were going to do
billing and accounting, it would require a machine, software, setup, and
maintenance, and the APs would need to be advanced enough to handle
additional authentication protocols (depending on setup).

    One of the fascinating things about Wi-Fi, is that it can be used for
last-mile connections -- imagine not having to pay Verizon anything to get
net piped-in -- and no monthly charges. I am dumbfounded by the continued
existance of dialup, absolutely stupified!