FOR MARKETING PERSPECTIVE --- INTERNET BUSINESS

FOR MARKETING PERSPECTIVE --- INTERNET BUSINESS

For The Jakarta Post, April 06, 2004-04-02

More effort needed to boost hotspots

Using e-mail in lieu of the mobile telephone to communicate
with family members, friends, colleagues and clients has lowered
the cost of staying in touch.

Now, the good news is that getting online is becoming easier
than ever. Just over a year ago, being able to sit down in a
restaurant and download our latest e-mail messages was not
something that we would have expected to be able to do here in
Jakarta.

We might have heard of the technology called wireless fidelity
(Wi-Fi), or its technical specification, 802.11x, but most of us
would still regard it as something that was only available
abroad.

Today, as if to prove that at least Jakarta is not far behind
its fellow Asian capital cities, we now have a number of
locations in this city where we can do just that.

A report by Tantri Juliandini that appeared in this paper
early last month listed the hotspots where we can connect to the
Internet without having to plug in a LAN cable.

Some of the hotspots offer Internet access for free, while
others don't. Free or not, at any rate now people with a Wi-Fi
enabled notebook or PDA have more flexibility in terms of where
they can work -- here or in any other big city.

In the U.S. and other parts of the world, McDonalds has joined
Starbucks in offering hotspot services. In Taiwan, as reported
recently by The Taipei Times, a local cafe chain named Zhen Quo
has been joined by Dante, another local coffee shop chain, in
providing hotspots at their outlets.

While pictures of professionally attired persons sitting with
their notebooks open are daily features of lifestyle magazines,
in reality we still see very few people actually working on their
notebooks in public places in Jakarta.

One possible reason is that the concept of worker mobility is
still not very common here. Another likely reason is, of course,
safety and security. If people see you working on your expensive
notebook, there is a chance they will wait for the right moment
to snatch it from you.

But things are definitely changing. It is no longer unusual
now for people to show their PowerPoint presentations to clients
or potential customers during lunch in coffee shops or malls.

Last year, Intel Indonesia, CBN, Acer Indonesia, Microsoft
Indonesia, Cisco Systems, Jaring Semesta Infosolusi
(Polaris|NET) and Elexmedia Komputindo -- seven leading players
in their respective sectors -- formed the Indonesian Wi-Fi
Consortium (IWC), whose main task is to promote hotspots in
Indonesia. They plan to set up more hotspots around the country.

As of today, CBN has three hotspots in Jakarta -- Coffee Club
at Senayan Plaza, Mr. Bean Coffee at Cilandak Town Square and
Lamoda Cafe at Plaza Indonesia. The speed is 64 Kbps both for
download and upload, and the service is free for the subscribers
of this Internet service provider.

Needless to say, the number of hotspot users would grow far
more rapidly if the service were free. As reported by The
Register (www.theregister.co.uk), AMD -- the computer chip maker
that competes with Intel -- announced last month that it would
launch its own hotspot promotion program. The company will
provide the necessary infrastructure for the hotspots, but the
service will be completely free for users.

What do the independent cafes and other venues get from
providing the free service? AMD promises that it will help them
with the marketing of their businesses. AMD will also brand the
free service using the logo "AMD Hotspots".

Thus, it will be a win-win marketing effort, while for the
users nothing is better than free access to the Internet as they
bite into their fresh-from-the-oven croissants.

All over the world, hotspots are appearing at airports, hotels
and convention centers. They will soon be available on long-haul
flights, as international airlines are working together with
Boeing's Connexion to install wireless LAN in their aircraft.

Lufthansa passengers, for example, will be able to access
their e-mail while flying next month. Hotspots are also becoming
available on executive trains and cruise ships in Europe.

What is needed now is a more concerted effort to boost the
awareness of hotspot availability so that we can see more
competition in the field -- and consequently lower prices for the
end users. -- Zatni Arbi