Tomizone tempts iPhone owners with free Wi-Fi

Stephen Withers
Friday, 04 July 2008 11:50

Business IT - Technology

The introductory offer is very nice for the users, but Tomizone providers - especially those running hotspots from their homes - need to realise that 50 percent of free is nothing, so they may be out of pocket on the deal with potentially many gigabytes of data being sucked from their ADSL or cable connections with no revenue to show for it. At least cafe owners have the opportunity of selling some extra coffee and cakes to offset the cost.

When the introductory period ends, users can choose between paying $A3/$NZ3 per hour (up to 60M), $A4/$NZ4.50 per day (160M) or $A20/$NZ22.50 per week (1.2G).

All that's needed to set up a Tomizone hotspot is a D-Link DIR-300 Wi-Fi router and an Internet connection. (iiNet customers can select the Belkin Gen 2 router instead.) Half the revenue from access charges goes to the owner, the rest to Tomizone. Owners retain the right to provide free access to their guests and friends, if they wish to do so.

The trick, from the owner's perspective, is to ensure that the marginal cost of providing other people with access doesn't exceed the ISP charges. And it's important to check that the ISP agreement permits resale, though we suspect most home users with a Tomizone Wi-Fi setup don't worry about such niceties.

Anyway, this is an interesting way for Tomizone to get some attention from the flood of media that covers any and all iPhone developments.

At the same time it's a great way to introduce iPhone and iPod Touch owners to the Tomizone network, as some probably won't realise they're not limited to their carrier's hotspot. But will Tomizone be able to convert them into paying customers when the introductory period is over? Those hotspot operators will be keeping their fingers and toes crossed!