Free WiFi access are already available few years ago in the Philippines and as far as I know, some well known commercial areas and food establishments are equipped. I’m not sure wherelse can you find a hot spot beside those I mentioned because I don’t travel much. But have you ever wondered why it is free? I can only think the reason for it is for people who have their own laptop with wireless network access capability to go to the hotspots like a coffee shop. So when people are attracted to go to that place, chances are they will also be a customer. Nice strategy for promoting a business. But there is a downside, I think. What if the establishment who provide free wifi access can’t keep up the cost? The more users it has, the more bandwidth it cosumes and that means more money to pay to a dsl broadband provider.
So the solution to keep up the cost is for the free wifi access to have an income of it’s own. But since it is free, then how do you suppose to make people pay for it? So the solution is monetizing the wifi. I learned about a local company here in the Philippines who monetize free wifi access by providing advertisements on the browser. The company is WIGO. All you have to do is go to their website, register and download a toolbar program and install it on your laptop. The bottom of your laptop screen will have a banner for advertisers which are the ones paying for the free wifi access. Very nice business idea isn’t it? Eventhough the cost of wireless broadband is going down because of competition, it can still burn a hole in our pocket. And besides, nothing beats a free broadband internet access! 
I just remembered EdsaMail which have the same business model as WIGO. The only difference is EdsaMail provides free email account and free dial-up internet access (for email only). Then banner advertisements will appear on the email interface. And as for WIGO, it provides free wifi access and serve banner ads on the browser. Eventhough the technology was different from each other, the business model was the same. So we can conclude that what ever kind of new technology arrives, the business model will not change.
Too bad Edsamail don’t exist anymore because of competition to other giant free email provider like Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo! mail and the availability, competitive cost, and faster speed of broadband internet access.
Posted by Manuel
Manuel Montala was an online entrepreneur who enjoys blogging about entrepreneurship and gathering information for his blog to help budding entrepreneurs. You can also reach him on twitter: http://twitter.com/mmontala
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I am in Baguio, Philippines right now, July 2009 and yes there is Free WIFI in a few places, however generally the Hotels have this log in system and want between 50 and 100 pesos per hour. I am in the Red Lion Inn and Pub, the general Pub area has free wifi.
@Andy HoboTraveler.com
Maybe WIGO will expand to that place in the future.
I haven’t seen this marketing/advertising strategy rolled out in Cebu coffee shops. Sounds like a cool idea. Hope it is not too intrusive.
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