Boingo Wireless - Wi-Fi Industry Basics

There are 36 million business travelers in the US, 27 million of whom carry laptops². On the road, dial-up Internet access is slow, expensive and it limits productivity. Over a dial-up connection, downloading large files or using a VPN to get into the corporate network is an exercise in patience and frustration. Business travelers have been known to miss planes struggling with dial-up settings or while waiting for a large file to download.

Many business travelers are beginning to plan their travel around the ability to get high speed access. In other words, they would choose one hotel over another based on the availability of a high speed connection³. As business travelers begin to understand where they can and can’t get service, Wi-Fi will increasingly become a critical factor for venues in competitive industries such as food services and hospitality.

Business travelers are the low-hanging fruit for Wi-Fi hotspots – they are likely to have Wi-Fi-enabled laptops and PDAs, and they have a clear need to get connected while traveling. But the larger consumer market also looms, driven by the increasing supply of Wi-Fi-enabled consumer devices.

²Travel Industry of America survey of business travelers, U.S. Bureau of Transport and National Business Travel Association
³According to an independent study commissioned by Boingo^® in 2001, 97 out of 100 business travelers surveyed would plan their travel around the availability of high speed access.