War of the mobile Internet service providers

Monday, March 31, 2003

timoreilly quotes Clay Shirky on why Wi-Fi (American for 802.11b) and 3G are competitors and why Wi-Fi will take a lot of steam out of expensive 3G plans.

Very nicely written, except I'm now not sure what to make of Lufthansa's FlyNet service since it now has keywords placing it in both camps. One one hand, captive customers on a long-haul flight with no options but what the airline offers them, and on the other hand, connectivity is provided via Wi-Fi and passengers can use their own laptops. The service has been on trial since January 15, 2003 on the Frankfurt to Washington (Dulles airport) route and free access ends April 15. Estimated charges are €30-35 per flight and that doesn't seem bad at all considering that this is a 7-hour flight and anyone flying from India would have already done the night's sleeping before getting to Frankfurt (but I paid only €12 for Internet access and unlimited snacks and beverages at the Europe City Club (ECC) lounge in Frankfurt airport, so this seems like a lot).

Getting back to Clay Shirky's argument, I can't help but be reminded of this February 2001 article by Andrew Odlyzko on the reason why SMS is so much more popular than WAP.

Also noteworthy is the fact that GPRS service seems to be rolling out across India faster than Wi-Fi. AirTel and Orange/Hutch provide GPRS wherever they provide service in India, and the last I heard, BPL Mobile had GPRS in Bombay (the country's first?). AirTel charges Rs. 999 a month for 10 MB of data transfer, which is outrageously expensive, but fact is AirTel has the service available around most of India, while I haven't heard of a single place offering public Wi-Fi access yet.

kingsly — Apr 1, 2003 12:40:06 PM — # ↩

Coffee Day Lavelle Road offers WiFi.

According to "The Hindu" so do all the Taj group hotels.

Hutch doesn't offer GPRS ... all they are offering is a glorified BBS Service with a WAP gateway tucked into a corner.

Unless you are someone that want unlimited WAP access... avoid Hutch.
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — Apr 1, 2003 3:23:12 PM — # ↩
  
  I stand corrected.
  
  Coffee Day on Lavelle Road, I must visit sometime. My new AirPort card needs some using. I also mailed Raj Madnani of Java City yesterday asking about W-Fi and he said he was interested but didn't know how to proceed. Let's hope we have Wi-Fi there too soon.
  - Anonymous — Jul 31, 2003 12:49:35 PM — # ↩
    
    OT: Any Mac user groups in Bangalore
    Hi Jace,
    
    Sorry for the off-topic question, and sorry for posting anonymously. I just happened to see your post while searching for info on GPRS providers in Bangalore. I am the owner of a brand new Apple 12" Powerbook (aluminium, combo-drive, bluetooth) and was wondering if there were any Macintosh user groups in Bangalore. Searches on both Google and Apple.com did not reveal any information.
    
    Thanks in advance,
    
    - John Jacob
    - Kiran Jonnalagadda — Jul 31, 2003 2:35:11 PM — # ↩
      
      Re: OT: Any Mac user groups in Bangalore
      No Mac user group that I am aware of. Want to start one?
jessyleen — Apr 2, 2003 11:25:01 AM — # ↩

Nice reads Jace! thnx!

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