Mobile Wireless Internet

[Ken Baker]

We have a lot of soccer travel. While traveling, we have wireless internet in the hotels, but not at the soccer fields. There is a lot of downtime at the fields, warming up, cooling down, etc. I am half-way between no internet needs and the needs for a 3G card, so have not made the jump.

The idea would be to support wireless internet access on remote locations using satellite connection. The hardware would be pretty straight-forward (generator, satellite dish, hub, wireless port). Problem would be that it would have to be weatherproof.

[Jeremy Floyd]

Interesting. I guess that the hassle of carrying all of the equipment you described would be too cumbersome for me. I would think about something like an aircard and a router like this one (which is battery operated) http://powerfulsignal.com/wi-fi-cellular-routers/PHS300-mobile-broa....

Yes, you would have to pay the monthly fee to the service provider, but you would have to pay a monthly fee to HughesNet and others. Plus, with the router option, you could share the single aircard with multiple devices.

I have used AT&T and Verizon as broadband providers, and I decided that Verizon has better coverage and better overall speeds. AT&T can peek higher than Verizon but that is only in certain locations.

[Ken Baker]

This is kind-of why I have never worked on it. The wireless card has slower speeds, but the overhead is high.

BTW- I was thinking of this as a signup business, like T-mobile in the airport ($12.99/hr). Not as a personal device.

[Leonard Knight]

Very cool idea! A mobile hot spot. Count me in if you're looking for a partner to start the first one up. We could put together a system with off the shelf components and existing satellite service. I foresee a fleet of mobile hot spots in the very near future.

[Ken Baker]

Leo,

What do you think that people would pay to have this type of remote access? This is the key sticking point. When I have reviewed the business plans in the past, I got stuck here. May be fun to do, just to put the technical parts together.

[Leonard Knight]

Offering an hourly option and a season pass would be nice. I also wonder if we couldn't get sponsors to cover costs. We need to talk to Dr. Scot he could help with determining our customer, marketing to them, finding sponsors, etc.

Sponsors: local restaurants; soccer supplies; drug stores; coffee shops.

We have a captive audience and could even have them fill out a survey before they can begin browsing.

I agree, building it would be fun...just making it work for a season and seeing how it does.

[Ken Baker]

We are thinking alike. I had thought that the setup would probably be temporary (soccer tourney, baseball tourney, temp needs of a business), so I thought hourly rate and 24 hour rate (similar to tmobile in the airport). Season pass would be considered if we had permanent or repetitive installations.

fixed installations would probably lean toward internet via cable.

Maybe we should discuss in a small meeting.....would be better than comment streams 1000 miles long. lol

[Leonard Knight]

Sounds good; let's talk after the EOK meeting Wednesday.

[Ken Baker]

I am in singapore for the next two weeks. after that....

[Leonard Knight]

Have any interest in setting up a hotspot at my building in Sequoyah? I bet it would cash flow with all the households within range.

We could learn a lot by setting one up and also get some cash flow in the process.

[Jason Mosier]

I have a Verizon Aircard and it works fine for surfing the web. $60.00 a month. I stream Phil Williams live on remote location and the Aircard is no good for upstream bandwith.

I checked on Hughes Net and several others and researched all of it and my conclusion came to this: If you do not have dedicated bandwith assigned then it is no faster or better than at&t or verizon. If you pay for dedication, It can set you back anywhere from $2000.00 to $9000.00 a month.

Verizon Aircard will only give you 1/2 meg at best in East Tennessee. It does not deliever what they Advertize.

[Steve Drevik]

Kenny boy!

I think a mobile service for events is a great idea. A simple system would be a laptop with a 3G card sharing its connection over a wireless router, but that might be a lot of people sharing not so much bandwidth. 3G on my iphone as a single user isn't all its cracked up to be, but that could be the iPhone itself.

Sharing the connection for pay is probably a violation of any cell data service agreement, but I won't tell anyone.

[Leonard Knight]

Along those lines...the Nokia E71 and N95 can act as wi-fi access points. Actually any of the Nokia S60 Symbian OS phones should work. This software allows the phone to use 3G for internet and service wi-fi as an access point: http://www.joikuspot.com/