With public hot-spot locations popping up faster than reality-based TV shows, companies that provide support services are finding a market ripe for innovations, the most compelling of which is how to help companies operating in the public hot-spot space make money.
One of the newest entrants into the market is Tatara Systems Inc., which announced its Wi-Fi Service Delivery Platform that the company said will allow service providers to achieve the much-desired profitability aspect of public hot-spot services that is currently in short supply.
The platform is designed to bridge the gap between companies that operate hot spots and those that manage end-user relationships through “service-enabled roaming solutions.”
The company noted its research has shown profitable public Wi-Fi deployment requires sufficient network coverage to attract a steady stream of users. With current haphazard deployment models, a roaming infrastructure is a must, the company said.
“We look at our platform as the glue to hold that infrastructure together,” said Stephen Nicolle, chief executive officer of Tatara, who was quick to point out that the company’s platform is not just a switch on a Wi-Fi network.
Tatara’s platform is made up of three components-its subscriber gateway and service manager, which are designed to support retail service providers, and its partner gateway, which is designed to support wholesale providers.
The subscriber gateway is designed to be deployed in a service provider’s central facility and communicates with the service manager, which Tatara said is a small footprint client application that can be deployed on the end user’s Wi-Fi-enabled device and provides authentication, authorization, billing, audit and advanced service capabilities.
The partner gateway is deployed centrally and is designed to work with virtually any Wi-Fi network hardware. Tatara claims the gateway does not require any specific client software to be deployed on the user’s device.
Tatara also noted the platform allows service providers to keep in constant contact with users by monitoring their usage patterns without violating VPN clients.
“Tatara has enough unique traits that it has the potential to be a front runner in the Wi-Fi space,” said Bob Egan, founder of consulting firm Mobile Competency. Tatara’s platform could help lower the cost of management for Wi-Fi providers, Egan said, a significant issue impeding the profitability of public hot spots.
The costs associated with offering Wi-Fi services were highlighted last week as Verizon Communications Inc. announced plans to equip up to 1,000 payphones in New York City with Wi-Fi capabilities. The company said each hot spot would cost approximately $5,000 to set up and would provide a range of approximately 300 feet.
Consulting firm InCode Telecom, which is working with Canadian telecommunications provider Bell Canada on a similar payphone hot-spot trial, explained that current hot-spot providers and wireless carriers are paying up to 30 percent of their revenue for locations and then have to install either a T1 or DSL line at the location to offer service.
By comparison, wireline carriers can use their existing payphone locations and already have wires capable of offering DSL speeds to the locations.
“Wireline carriers like Verizon are three steps ahead of other hot-spot providers before they even get started,” said John Donovan, CEO of InCode.
Verizon said it would not charge its current DSL customers for access to the payphone hot spots, noting the service would pay for itself by helping to cut down on customer churn.
Egan noted Verizon’s offering could prove successful because public hot-spot services need to be highly available to be successful. “You have to have enough availability to make it easy to use,” Egan explained. “The high-density model needed for Wi-Fi to be successful is the same model companies used for the payphone market.”
