Analysis of Customer Relations for Public Internet Access in the Local Environment

The development of the wireless broad band access that can be used "anywhere" follows two different paths, one is based on cellular solutions and is used by mobile operators and another one based on WLAN systems where other types of market actors appear. In this paper different types of customer and billing relations for provisioning of broad band wireless access are analyzed. Operators rely on subscriptions and usage fees whereas other types of actors, e.g. hotels and cafés, exploit the short term business relation and also can offer the access for free. The analysis shows that the business of access provisioning in hot spots to a large extent is a matter of re-use of customer relations rather than building and operating networks. Companies with any type of business or billing relation can and should exploit this.