RunningWithBulls.com - The curse of Sanfermin

The Economist is running this image showing the broadband penetration in worldwide countries.

Demand for broadband connections is booming in the developing world, growing by 100% or more each year in many countries. In the developed world, meanwhile, growth has slowed to mere double-digit rates, according to Point Topic, a market-research firm. Separate figures from iSuppli, another market-research firm, suggest that global broadband growth peaked in 2004 at 52%, and will slow to 31% this year.

The sad and embarrasing thing for a “E-hub” like Ireland (not my words!) is that we are not on that chart. “Third world countries” are on that chart. Where is Ireland? I would guess its probably easier to buy 10Kg of cocaine in Dublin than it is to get a DSL line.

Earlier today I came across a mention about “free” WiFi usage in Ireland on WNNEurope.

Three points were made:

* “As far as I can tell, there are no longer any free hotspots in Dublin.” (by Nancy Gohring)
Well as far as I can tell (and I do have experience of this) there are plenty of free WiFi points in Dublin. They all may not be actively advertised, but there are many, especially in the city centre.

*”as Jim mentions, is that Internet cafes are absolutely everywhere and they’re really cheap—2 euros or less per hour. Users can bring their laptops and either plug in via Ethernet or use a hotspot there, as Jim discovered.”
Now, this point is true. You can walk into an Internet Café (where they normally don’t sell coffee;) ) and get online for about €1.50-€2.00 per hour.
This is one of the main reasons why WiFi doesn’t really work here. Where it is available and you have to buy it, it is overly expensive (I call anymore than €1.50 per 30mins too expensive).

*”The other hurdle to individuals setting up hotspots in cafes is that broadband is a major pain to get here.”
Oh Lord is this true. I spent over 3 months trying to get a semi-synchronis DSL connection for our office, and finally Leap Broadband were able to do it.
But what about those guys who want to run a WiFi point in their bar/cafe/resturant? Well by AUPs of most ISPs this is not allowed. You cannot resell your Internet connection to anyone. So, what can you do? Well offer it for free, but then you are getting into the possible situation of someone doing something nasty from your network.

I know personally I will keep running my open WiFi access from my house as long as I have connection.
Bars and resturants could learn alot from Jim’s explanation of why you have to offer WiFi from free:
Are you looking for a way to distinguish your business from your competitors? Do you want new customers? Do you want to increase sales? One way for commercial businesses to distinguish themselves in competitive marketplaces is by providing free public Wi-Fi access for their customers.