Fixed Wireless Business

Hotspot-in-a-Box

We're not sure if anybody has actually figured out how to make money from building Wi-Fi hotspots just yet, but there sure are a bunch of companies out there taking a shot at it.

by Gerry Blackwell [May 14, 2002]

The latest gambit, from Toledo Ohio-based Airpath Wireless Inc., is Hotspot-in-a-box, a $1,295 package that includes all the hardware and software a public venue owner needs to become an instant public hotspot or wireless Internet service provider (WISP).

Airpath President and Chief Executive Officer Todd Myers says the company has already sold 400 units to a single public venue owner—he can't divulge the customer's name yet—and it has leads to 400 more prospective customers, including some overseas.

Incidentally, the company is also looking for regional product distributors of the product and views ISPs as likely candidates.

But Hotspot-in-a-box is just one of Airpath's hotspot initiatives. The company also has over 25 locations where it's managing hotspots of its own and/or offering fixed wireless services—in hotels, condominiums, marinas and conference centers in Toledo and southeast Florida.

Retail subscribers pay fairly typical hourly, daily or monthly charges for access to the Airpath hotspots—$2.95, $7.95 or $49.95, respectively.

Last December, the company announced an agreement to establish hotspots at 39 AirTran Airways boarding gate locations. It has 15 up and running so far and there's more to come, soon.

"We have a giant pipeline of [hotspot] networks to design and build," Myers claims. "I can't give any details yet, but they're all in public venues. There are several large hotel chains, other airlines, airports, cities—even countries."

Roaming off the beaten path
The company's other main focus these days—besides Hotspot-in-a-box, which Myers says created a firestorm of interest in the week or two after it was announced in mid-April—is the Airpath roaming network.

Airpath is building a network of wireless hotspot partners to rival iPass Inc. of Redwood Shores, Calif., and Milpitas, Calif.-based GRIC Communications Inc.—or so it hopes. Boingo Wireless Inc. of Santa Monica, Calif., interestingly, is Airpath's first roaming partner.

"A lot of people ask if Boingo isn't really a competitor," Myers says. "In some cases—even as it relates to GRIC and iPass—yes, they're competitive. But we also all have to work together to help spread the use of the technology."

Airpath differentiates itself from iPass and GRIC by not requiring roaming subscribers to use Airpath-branded client software to access the network. Instead it ties its network into roaming partners' RADIUS servers. Their subscribers log in to Airpath access points using their home ID and password and start the session at the partner's portal site.

"That way," says Myers, "our partners don't lose any of their branding capability. It helps build regional brand loyalty. That's one of the keys to our roaming network strategy."

Another is billing. Airpath looks after all the reciprocal billing among roaming partners. And it has worked out a way of doing it that allows partners to more accurately predict their roaming costs.

It puts a cap on how much any one partner can end up paying or receiving for roaming services. It basically takes in the money—up to the capped limit—and then divvies it up to the partners based on proportionate usage.

This makes it possible for partners to not have to charge by-the-month subscribers separately for roaming services. Most won't, Myers says.

Airpath has aggressive plans. Having 50,000 hotspots in the network by the end of the year is not outside the realms of possibility, Myers claims. "We're currently in negotiation with several international players," he says.

Partners in the sky
The company sees ISPs as another potential source of roaming partners. "It's really any organization with a customer base and a billing system that can refer to our RADIUS server," Myers says.

Hotspot-in-a-box also has a roaming play. The package includes membership in the Airpath roaming network. So every customer—from the giant hotel with multiple hotspots, to the independent coffee shop—gets added into the network.

Not included in the $1,295 for Hotspot-in-a-box are roaming charges—capped, as noted—and a unique ASP-based billing outsourcing service from Airpath.

This means venue owners don't even need a server. The Airpath hardware unit, based on the CN1050 secure wireless router from Colubris Networks Inc. of Laval, Quebec, plugs into any broadband connection—T1, DSL, cable—and with a minimal amount of configuration from a Wi-Fi capable personal computer the system is ready to provide wireless services.

The software required for both the roaming and billing services is built into the Colubris unit. Airpath does all the billing, including credit card transactions. The billing service is optional, though. Some venues will want to give the service away, Myers notes. Airpath charges $50 a month for 0 to 100 subscribers, $100 a month for 101 to 250 subscribers, and so on.

Hotspot-in-a-box is an intriguing idea and Airpath is an interesting company—stuck though it may be in the northern hinterlands. It offers two opportunities for ISPs—one to join its roaming network and another to resell AirPath's Hotspot-in-a-box product.

Myers knows the ISP industry well, as he is quick to point out. He operated Glass City Internet, a regional ISP in Ohio, now part of CoreComm Communications Inc., as well as WholesaleISP.net, a dial-up ISP aggregator. He sold both more than 18 months ago and launched Airpath last year.

Worth checking out? You tell us. Share your experiences with us if your ISP has deployed a hotspot-in-a-box from Airpath.

—End