Gear Up to Profit From Today's 40 Million Wi-Fi Users

By Thom Greco

There are about 40 million Wi-Fi users, and access points are selling at the rate of about 15,000 a day, which makes Wi-Fi a much faster growing technology than cellular phones. Intel — the corporation that makes and dominates the production of micro-processing chips that run your computers — believes it is as big as the introduction of the Internet. The company has spent more than $300 million in advertising Wi-Fi.

As an owner/operator, do you even know what Wi-Fi is? This is your chance to catch up on a little bit of technology and how it can affect your business. Remember, being on the cutting edge, recognizing trends and implementing them first and properly will make you a leader. It's your chance to create a niche in your market and that is what our industry is all about.

Why Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi is a wireless solution to connecting to the Internet or between assigned computers. Not only is it wireless, but it attains much higher transfer speeds of information and video than any of your phone lines, DSL or cable modems. These frequencies — 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g — are free.

Normally, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocates and you must pay for the use of certain frequencies. For example, the FCC regulates certain frequencies for FM and AM signals, cellular phones television and pagers. However, there are frequencies that are in the public domain and are free to use. Wi-Fi takes advantage of this opportunity to develop a way to transmit and receive digital information.

Current Wi-Fi technology is limited to several hundred feet and speeds of 11 megabits (802.11b and in reality 5 Mbps), although there are other Wi Fi applications being developed that can go much faster and further. With the proliferation of lap tops, tablet PC's and pocket PC's have dominated computer sales. With Intel's introduction of the Centrino chip made especially for Wi-Fi, your computer already has Wi-Fi integrated into their microprocessor chip. If you have a PCMCIA port, you can buy an after-market Wi-Fi card from $59 to $99 that you insert into your laptop. This allows you to receive and transmit data utilizing 802.11 b and achieve actual speeds of 5 Mbps — which is three times faster than a T-1 line and 10 times faster than your DSL or cable modem.

These wireless-enabled computers communicate with an access point, which is also referred to as a “hotspot.” This hotspot is connected to the outside world through a high-speed Internet access connection (what you plug the Wi-Fi router into such as a telephone line, DSL, cable modem or T-1 line). The faster the broadband connection, the faster the end user can experience the Internet, download video or even burn a CD.  

The weakest link in the chain is the connection to the outside world. If your Wi-Fi card can stream at effectively 5 Mbps and the network hotspot is plugged into a DSL line (.5 Mbps), then it is obvious that the weakest link in the chain will be the DSL line going to the Internet.

Wi-Fi Revolution

Can you use this new technology to add revenue to your bottom line? It is already starting to happen. There is now an explosion of Wi-Fi hotspots in hotels, coffee shops, restaurants and airports.

There is a whole new line of products being developed that will soon compliment the personal mobile computers. McDonald's has tested and deployed hotspots in their restaurants in San Francisco and New York City and have already announced a worldwide deployment. Starbucks has built its business that slows after 9 a.m. by offering Wi Fi access for the traveling businessman with their coffee. The potential market includes windshield warriors, a term that encompasses millions of blue collar workers and white collar workers, from traveling sales representatives to delivery and repair workers, who now need to check electronic mail and use the Internet on the job) and students.

There are many other great success stories such as the coffee nightclub, DTUT, in New York City, as seen on CNN.   This technology also has been used to revitalize downtown business districts with the construction of Wi Fi “Clouds” which are a web of hotspots that cover the entire city. Right now Bryant Park in New York City has free public access for Wi-Fi.

Some hotspots charge for access and others offer it free as a loss leader to get people in their seats. Starbucks charge up to $10 an hour, McDonalds offers a free hour of access with the purchase of a full meal and then $4.95 per hour thereafter.

Some chains have decided to use the service as a loss leader. Evidence supporting the powerful attraction of Wi Fi comes in reports that both Schlotsky's Deli and the Wyndham hotel chains have recently claimed that free Wi Fi has measurably increased business.

Did you ever take your laptop and look for an easy way to connect with your email or surf the Internet? This is the easiest way to make that connection and be welcomed.

Students can download and burn CDs in minutes rather than hours on their traditional telephone line. Businessman can log on for video teleconferencing, WebEx and communicate with their sales associates on the road over a sandwich or coffee.

Getting Connected

Today, there are a number of companies that are offering the connectivity behind Wi-Fi, including Wayport, Verizon, Cometa, T Mobile, and now AT&T and MCI. You can hire the experts, but you can do it yourself, too.

All you need to buy is a Wi-Fi router that connects to a broadband connection. You can get a connection from DSL, cable modem, T-1 or faster connections. Subscribe to an ISP and set up enough access points to cover your club, bar or restaurant. If you want a professional approach, you can hire a local IP telecom provider with commercial equipment, or you can start off with Cisco's Linksys at your local Best Buy and install it by following the directions and experimenting as to the best way to cover your venue.

The cost is quite reasonable. You can get an access router and the hotspots to cover a 3000-square-foot facility from $1,000 to $2,000.   A real commercial layout could cost 50 percent more. It certainly is no more than that killer centerpiece of your light show on the dance floor or that recent purchase of a cappuccino/ espresso machine, and it could distinguish your facility from the others.

Customize Your Wi-Fi

There are many innovative uses for Wi-Fi. Internally, you can use it for your own business purposes such as transferring your inventory to your main office computer. How about your sales information and reports from your managers laptop? There is an innovative product offered by Proximities in Princeton, N. J., that takes the ID/age verification scanners and charge card machines to another level. It's the next generation in the evolution of digital transfer of information and the creation of a database specific to our industry.

Proximities has built a RFID GO chip (much like your EZ Pass) into a disposable wristband. Imagine all your bars operating without cash. Simply by registering the information into a chip with a scanner at the beginning of the night, a customer can go from retail point to point without their credit card creating a tab at your main computer server in the back office or kitchen using Wi Fi to transfer the sale information.

Not only does it register your customer's preferences and sales data, but it closes out the charges at the end of the night, registers their tip and you now have a mailing list with all their pertinent information and spending habits to create a killer data base. Now that is useful information!

Gear Up

You can purchase the gear from any source and there are many. Cisco has the Aironet product and I am partial to any Cisco gear. Cisco is upgradeable as the technology evolves, and you have the full faith of the leading technology corporation in the world. Their commercial product is Aironet and residential/small business is Linksys.

Thom Greco is a Past Chairman of the Oxford Publishing Inc. Advisory Board, Consultant to the Hospitality business, has owned and operated hotels, nightclubs, restaurants, radio stations and amphitheatres. Consultant to the Communications Industry and Economic Development Through Revitalization of the Blighted Downtowns, Broadband Communications advisor to Governor Rendell and Senator Corman of Pennsylvania. Broadband advisor to U.S. Senator Santorum and also President/CEO of G Net CommCo building out the CyberCity of the future utilizing advanced broadband connectivity with Optical IP technology and coordination through MAGPI with the Internet 2 and Internet 3.