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INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | | JULY 18, 2003 DIGITAL MANAGER By Alex Salkever Thanks to WiFi, a Fair Share of the Net Finally, an Internet service provider is offering a pricing plan that allows primary customers to split connections with neighboring businesses
Alas, most broadband providers have balked at allowing multiple users to exploit WiFi's potential and share a single cable or DSL broadband connection. And even when they don't ban it, Internet service providers (ISPs) generally won't help downstream users who are trying to access WiFi but haven't signed up for a primary account. Worse, broadband outfits often charge higher rates for additional connections and business accounts. So Joe, Allan, and Kathy have been out of luck. Not anymore, thanks to a new offering by national ISP Speakeasy.net, the first outfit to set up a program that lets small businesses share a WiFi hot-spot and enjoy full customer support and bona fide legal standing throughout its 48-state network. HELPING HANDS. It's been a long-time coming. In apartment buildings around the country, residents have for several years been setting up WiFi hot spots to share bandwidth amongst neighbors from a single broadband connection. Demand was clearly there. Official sanction from the broadband companies, alas, was not. The lack of official standing proved a hindrance to small-business owners who love the convenience of WiFi but prefer to play by the rules in order to ensure that their accounts get full support and remain completely legal. In early June, the Seattle-based ISP launched a program called NetShare. Under the terms of the program, Speakeasy will help high-speed DSL subscribers set up their own WiFi networks and give them the tools to resell access to friends, neighbors, and small businesses. "There are no restrictions on small businesses in a commercial location or professionals working from home," says Arnaud Gautier, Speakeasy's director of product development. The ISP's tech-support staff will help anyone who buys access to that particular WiFi network to get their computers set up for secure connections. Speakeasy will also provide tech support to all who sign up, including the primary and secondary subscribers. The primary account holder can determine the prices he or she charges for access. In exchange for its help, Speakeasy takes 50% of the subscription fee the primary subscriber collects each month from his secondary WiFi subscribers. The ISP credits the remaining 50% towards the account bill of the primary subscriber. NetShare has a 14-day free trial period. Finally, WiFi for the little guy.  Salkever is Technology editor for BusinessWeek Online and covers computer security issues weekly in his Security Net column Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | JULY |
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