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10/13/2005: "What will you do when its all free?"

Once more into the breech. I asked Wayport's board this question back in the summer of 2000. Its been five years, and now we have the hoteliers demanding Free WiFi:

What Wyndham Hotels and Resorts along with other hotel chains found is that if you make Internet access free you go from “the needs of the minority” as the Dorchester technology director described it to the needs of the majority: Wyndham saw usage quadruple when they made Internet access free to members of their no-cost affinity club.

Eric D. Horodas, the president of Greystone Hospitality, a San Francisco hotel company, was not buying that. “I am very annoyed when I check into a high-end hotel and find I have to pay extra to connect to the Internet,” he said. Business travelers, he said, should “demand complimentary Internet access.”

Wayport is so very fucked. I'm waiting for McDonalds to go free.