Businesses 'wasting money on Wi-Fi hotspots'

By Barry Collins

Posted on 23 May 2007 at 15:09

Businesses are wasting thousands of pounds on Wi-Fi hotspot fees because they don't use the minutes they pay for.

A survey conducted for hotspot provider Trustive found that most Wi-Fi users pay for ad-hoc access, such as scratch cards and vouchers that are sold in hour blocks. However, the average surfing session clocks in at 30 minutes or less, meaning business users are often paying for far more than they need. 'People are complaining Wi-Fi is expensive. Right now Wi-Fi is expensive, because it's not used in an optimal way,' according to Bram Jam Strefland, managing director of Trustive.

Strefland claims that most businesses also fail to budget for Wi-Fi access properly. 'When people are using hotspots, they pay out of their own pocket and then go back to the company and claim expenses,' he says. This means that Wi-Fi usually isn't accounted for in the company's IT budget, becoming a hidden cost. 'It doesn't make sense for companies to have users running around with no policy in place. It should come from a data communications budget,' Strefland adds.

Strefland claims companies can save money by buying pooled subscriptions, where the company buys a set amount of minutes per month that are shared between various employees.

The Trustive survey also casts doubt over claims that VoIP is set to become a killer application for hotspots. It found that less than a quarter of hotspot users make voice calls over the connection.