Can Free Public WiFi Work in the Philippines?
By Rico, 7:07 am Fri Nov 7 2008 - News - 6 Opinions
For The Gadget Blog, here’s what I wrote about free public WiFi’s sustainability:
“…since connectivity is easily maximized (everyone’s into downloading nowadays), free WiFi isn’t sustainable. Whether supported by government money, advertisements, or even charity. That’s because as more people discover a “need” to be online on a regular basis, they start becoming addicts for connectivity. Imagine how attractive free WiFi is to this new breed of cravers.
So usage multiplies tremendously. Some people even try maximizing their of the access, selfishly grabbing as much bandwidth as possible. Even a relatively small percentage of users doing this will be enough to bring the network to its knees, as the power users crowd out the casual ones.
So the service provider starts increasing its capacity, hoping that economies of scale will keep the costs down, or even make the venture profitable. But as the user base grows, more power users will rise to make up the slack. The vicious cycle will continue until the service provider cannot expand, due to infrastructure limitations or a simple lack of cash.”
What do you think? Can free public WiFi work—long-term—in the Philippines? I was talking about free WiFi as a widespread utility (like electricity and water), rather than the free WiFi available in many restos and cafes.
sultanjr
11:11 am Fri Nov 7 2008
Public wifi should be made widely available but it can’t be free – like electricity and water, we all need to pay for what we use. I don’t think anyone can truly afford to make public wifi free in the long term, even advertisers.
But I think the current addiction to downloading is largely because most of downloads are illegal. I think when the time comes that people are forced to pay for everything they download off the web, the addiction should fall.
Brownspank
12:12 am Sat Nov 8 2008
Whoever’s shouldering this could offer free WiFi at a “casual speed”, say 128kbps, then offer a premium service to users who want faster speeds. That should make free WiFi a reality, without having to put as much pressure on telecoms.
Rico
10:10 pm Mon Nov 10 2008
sultanjr: I’m not sure if there will ever be a way to “force” people to pay for what they download on the web. Copy protection is theoretically impossible, because even if you place limitations on the hardware people use, there will always be a way to defeat those through software. Case in point: iPods and Floola.
Brownspank: I think this is already being done. My experience with Bona Coffee, for instance, is that they limit the number of active connections their free WiFi users can use. I’m not sure if that’s feasible on a much larger, public scale however.
Mike
11:11 pm Fri Nov 14 2008
I think free WiFi is possible in the Philippines. While more and more people are getting web-savvy, not that many people can afford WiFi-enabled devices anyway.
As a result, the infrastructure won’t be that burdened, unlike your experience in Singapore.
However, once WiFi-enabled devices become cheaper and more users are introduced to it, the infrastructure is sure to be burdened soon enough.
The question is: how long would it take before the local cellphone craze extends into the WLAN dimension? I can’t say. Perhaps five years, perhaps even shorter.
Who knows? Moore’s Law is certainly making advanced technology more accessible in a shorter span of time.
taympers
11:11 am Sat Mar 14 2009
thats possible as long as it is supported and never be abused.
skyflakes
12:12 am Tue Nov 3 2009
taympers: now THAT’s quite impossible, especially the latter.