UK wireless ISP seeks hotspot partners

Will o' the Wispanet

UK wireless ISP (WISP) Wispanet has begun looking for public locations to host Wi-Fi access points.

Wispanet said it will provide location partners will all the equipment they need to offer WLAN access to the Net. The WISP will also install and maintain the equipment.

Wispanet operates a revenue-sharing model, splitting the proceeds from users logging on to the service with the hotspot host. Users pay €4 (£2.79) per hour, €10 (£6.99) per day or €50 (£34.95) per month to access the service. Partners will earn 12.5 per cent of the revenue generated per user, and up to 15 per cent if users order Wi-Fi hardware from Wispanet. Roaming customers will yield a different revenue percentage. Wispanet claims this is one of the "most attractive" commission packages in the hotspot business.

Wispanet says it will handle local marketing of the service, providing material to promote the availability of Wi-Fi at the partner's venue.

Wispanet is an affiliate of Toledo, Ohio-based Airpath, which provides software to integrate hotspots from a variety of WISPs in the US, Canada, France, the Netherlands, South Africa, the UK and Jordan. Airpath provides a unified billing system so that Wispanet's own customers and those of their partners can access affiliated WLANs using their UK login. Wherever they go, they are billed in their own currency by their own WISP.

The Airpath affiliates network stretches to some 206 sites around the US, and 54 more in the other countries. ®