(keitai-l) Re: Starbucks wireless internet

Thanks for the article, Bruce. I can see why it war nearly canned at an
earlier stage.
Problem with the Starbucks etc models is one of pricing.

Glenn Fleishman writes an interesting appraisal of 80.211 business model
pricing here :
http://80211b.weblogger.com/
"The reason pricing is so high now is that everyone is sure enough of the
race to the bottom, that no one dare price service too low and lose on
margin while they can still get it. A second issue: real-estate venues get a
split of the payment, and you have to guarantee a reasonable amount of money
per user and session which requires high per-day or per-month fees,
relatively speaking"

When Starbucks offered $15.95 for 200 minutes it kind of set the bar. I'm
sure they could feasibly charge 1/10th of that price but dare not trigger
the "race to the bottom."

Japan Telecom has been wiring (unwiring?) the Yamanote-sen for quite a while
now with WLAN connections, conducting tests from Sept-Dec last year at Tokyo
Station. The service start scheduled for Feb 2002 is set for
Shinjuku-Shibuya-Ueno-Shinagawa on the JR line with a view to expansion in
July.

GB




-----Original Message-----
From: keitai-l-bounce@appelsiini.net
[mailto:keitai-l-bounce@appelsiini.net]On Behalf Of Bruce Davis
Sent: 19 February 2002 13:59
To: keitai-l@appelsiini.net
Subject: (keitai-l) Re: Starbucks wireless internet



my mistake - i tried to use it in near times square.NYC and they told me
they had taken out the access - link below suggests it was a close run
thing.

http://www.internetnews.com/isp-news/article/0,,8_911001,00.html