Business users tune out of Wi-Fi

Too expensive, not enough information

High tariffs and lack of information about readily available public access services are stopping most corporate staff from using Wi-Fi technology when travelling.

Research firm Gartner estimates that only 17 percent of UK business travellers currently connect to email or the internet via wireless LAN (WLAN) hotspots now ubiquitous in European airports, hotels and other travel hubs. Meanwhile, almost a third saw no need to use such services.

Delia MacMillan of Gartner said high costs and inflexible tariffs were limiting hotspot use. "The price is very offputting, and rarely necessary when workers will [shortly] be somewhere where they can connect for free," she said. "Unless you are a truly mobile worker, you can exist without it."

T-Mobile currently operates or has roaming agreements with over 2,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK. Jay Saw, T-Mobile manager of public WLANs, expressed satisfaction with the number of travellers using hotspots in a market that he described as young with massive growth potential.

Saw denied Gartner's claim that prices are high. "Some people are used to free or low-cost internet connections, but to provide quality of service over high-speed links and manage it as a professional network is totally different from an internet cafe," he said.

But both MacMillan and Saw agreed that corporate IT managers do not realise the benefits that hotspot access can provide, and argued that organisations should develop wireless usage policies.