By editorial@silicon.com, 17 July 2002 16:30
COMMENT Anyone remember 1999? Lots of companies promising free internet access? Yes, that's right. It was all going to be paid for by advertising, wasn't it? As anyone who forked out any cash to shysters like RedHotAnt back in the day will tell you, the reality didn't work out in practice. This reporter was among the gullible people who paid that company £30 in the hope of a year of happy surfing. I managed to log on about twice, and I'm still waiting for my refund. However, for my £30 I learned a valuable lesson - that quality services don't come cheap, and they definitely don't come free. Somehow, somewhere, the bill has to be paid, even in the new economy. However, some people seem to have forgotten this simple fact. There's lots of encouraging talk about free wireless access for all, supplied on a pro bono basis by well-meaning passers-by who can't see any reason why they shouldn't let any schmo with a WLAN card log onto their network and surf till their fingers are sore. All the nonsense about warchalking in the press recently was very entertaining, but there are just too many reasons why it will never happen. Would you put a chalk symbol outside your office or home, telling everyone that you have a wireless network and they're free to log on to it whenever they like? And start looking for vulnerabilities in your network? And what happens when your ISP starts moaning about the volume of traffic you produce? And the interference your WLAN network causes with their paid-for one? And how many internet cafés do you know that let you use the machines for free so you buy more coffee? About as many as give you free pastries to get you to buy more cappuccinos. Yes, the internet is a wonderful thing but it comes at a price. Wireless maybe, but payment-less, never.
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