Google Full of Shit on Only San Fransisco WiFi
The ink is not even dry (or wet yet) on the San Fransisco WiFi deal, and Earthlink's CEO is already looking for another city to partner with Google to provide free WiFi to:
EarthLink Inc. and Google Inc., which were tapped Wednesday by San Francisco to provide hybrid free and paid Wi-Fi Internet services, plan to bid for a second U.S. city together under a proposal that would offer more limited free services, EarthLink Chief Executive Garry Betty said.
The two companies have not yet determined which city they will target, Betty said. But they intend to propose building a network that would mainly be sustained by paid subscriptions sold by EarthLink, one of the nation's largest Internet service providers. They would, however, offer all city residents and visitors free access to Google's ad-supported local search service and to area Web sites, he said, using technology from Google that would restrict non-subscribers' access. Google would share some of the ad revenue earned with EarthLink.
Earthlink's stock might be set up for a nice pop if it can get a little momentum:
The lack of analyst coverage surprises me. I would have expected to see more interest. With more than 10 percent of the stock's float sold short, there is certainly fuel for a short-covering rally if ELNK begins to advance. Short interest is high, leaving the door open for a short-covering rally if short sellers see the stock suddenly rise.
With Earthlink booking at a paultry 1.2 billion what are the odds that Google may want to buy their WiFi partner of choice outright?
Unfair Competition Law
Is there not some law to cover this?
I presume G are giving away a service that others charge for. Presumably this is likely to put them out of business.
Looks like a case of unfair competition to me
My brother and I were
My brother and I were thinking about doing exactly the same thing. Can you imagine the revenues from advertising if you cover a compact european city of 1.5 million with free internet? New base stations are going to have a range of 3 km's and only cost a few $1000's each opposted to a bts's for mobiles which now cost $50k-100,000 each. Money back in no time and I guess you are going to put a lot of people out of business or they are going to have to give their services away for free too and go for the ads model. Free is a great way to get market share and crush everyone around you :)
Actually bro, the idea was
Actually bro, the idea was to use existing access points and give a rev share of the advertising and paid phone calls to the owners of the access point.
You don't even need to build a wifi network. Just get the owners of wifi access points to install our software on their PC to act as a gateway.
I am surprised Google hasn't worked that one out. They could do the whole world for free without any need for an infrastructure partner. And in no time too.
Heh, Matt if you read this sticky me and I'll make presentation for you. 50% of the revenue which you gave to earthlink is fine for me.
SlyOldDog, that sounds like
SlyOldDog, that sounds like one of Cringely's columns..
I say the next city will be Atlanta
... since it's the home of Earthlink - (and the home of many former disgruntled Earthlink employees - lol). And speaking of disgruntled Earthlink employees, a few months ago when one of my friends was employed at Earthlink - for the second time - (1 out of 4 of my Atlanta friends have worked for Earthlink at some point) we discussed Google's WiFi plans and he let me know that this was also in the pipeline for Earthlink. So when I read this news this week of a partnership, I wasn't surprised. In Atlanta where 1 out of 4 people works in tech or tech marketing (seriously) every place has wireless access or is in the process of getting wireless access, this type of service would be a natural fit. So I totally see Atlanta as being the next city to implement this... I know I would use it... as long as I never had to call Earthlink to resolve customer service issues... (grrr) lol
>>SlyOldDog, that sounds
>SlyOldDog, that sounds like one of Cringely's columns..
I take that means you think it isn't doable :)
If you'll let me put adsense on top of live content which the user is browsing and give me a rev share, I'll do the rest ;-)
http://www.dailywireless.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2791
It looks doable at 256k per - 3000 users. Inital set up would be 3$ per user + monthly bandwidth and site aquistion, rent charges. Fixed costs would be site rent for attenas, network admin. A rough guess for profit would be each user has to click $10 of ads per month to turn a profit. Guess they would have to be really in your face ads to make people click that many, so maybe not such a good proposition for the entrepeneur but good for earthlink and google to get marketshare.
Then again, will only work in the states or UK for now as in central europe where I live there are not too many big $$$ ads but it will not be that way for ever.
Who really
needs ads when your 100-200 feet away from your destination? Pie in the sky from a revenue stand point but maybe the stock will get a nice pop from the resulting "google to dominate wireless" dimwits.
BTW its PARTIALLY FREE, which really means NOT FREE, but I guess "hybrid free" is a new term like GSU designed to fool people.
>>needs ads when your
>needs ads when your 100-200 feet away from your destination
You should try coming to eastern europe man. There are 1000 businesses withing 200m here, but none of them have a visible signpost.
You should try coming to
LOL, sounds interesting, but how would an adword help a merchant in that density? Kinda reminds me of the attorney who spent big bucks via TV to get clients to his office and a competitor with a law office on wheels parked his converted RV in the parking lot and hijacked his prospects on the way into the building. I call it drafting ;) Could make for some nice fist fights!
AdSense for WiFi, here we come
I set this site up as a joke after the announcement, but it could actually happen...
Yeah, Eric. That's what I
Yeah, Eric. That's what I meant :)
On second thoughts who needs Google anyway? It's local ads that matter and Google doesn't have those outside the US. All you need to do is sign up the local businessmen and plonk the ads on top of a wifi connection.
Of course Adsense would be nice to add on top if someone is browsing for a product further afield :)