Skip to main content

Pump my Pipe...It's Convenient

Once more I find convergence, and I don't mean FMC or any of those other Telco terms, I have found Idea Convergence.

Some time ago Paul Jardine talked about "the Other network" an idea he had many years ago, now we have NZ Telecom doing just that. On this blog I have extended the ideas of the Wifi Lightpost and fixed wireless access and Paul raised the idea of TescoMax.

Right now WiFi access in Bangkok is far from prolific but with the license given to TTT Broadband they could use some of these ideas to broaden the access to their network. Throughout this sprawling city you can rely on finding one of two things:
  1. A petrol station - PTT, Caltex, Shell, Green Leaf etc
  2. 7-Eleven - the ubiquitous convenience store
And in many locations you can find both i.e. a 7-Eleven at a petrol station.

Tie in to these two infrastructure nodes and you have a pretty good grid for your network nodes. Both places by default are in built up urban areas with homes greedy for internet access.

PTT and DTAC have a partnership that gives them an EDGE Modem on the DTAC network that makes it cheap for electronic payment methods to be used opposed to the high prices charged by the domestic arm of the TOT/CAT duopoly. So PTT at least are used to business benefits of wireless access, it's time to create the same benefit for the customers.

I'm sure 7-Eleven face similar high charges for telephony so giving them free access in return for hosting your WiMax infrastructure would be welcomed. They are also a known brand that has is an efficient supply chain for your pre-paid cards (assuming that you are going to charge for access) and a payment mechanism as they offer the PayPoint service.

TT&T themselves have a lot of phone booths so could easily roll out WiFi on "their other network"

There is a glitch though. I also happen to think that 7-Eleven and ideally placed to be an MVNO for the same reasons, they are everywhere, people know who they are and a wireless extension of their PayPoint service would be a service I would sign up for. However there is no reason why the partnership could still be a productive one.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

PC over IP - The Teradici Effect

Teradici are hoping to blur the lines between PC and Data Centre. Their solution allows a use to view multiple screens and control the blade PC over IP. This is kind of like the dumb terminals with a new edgy deployment. The intention is that all of the computing power is performed offsite in a centralized area, the Data Centre, and this will save on power and maintenance costs as the engineers are co-located with the hardware and therefore don't have to go out to the client site for basic maintenance. The Teradici Company Article found in the Wall Street Journal

e-Olympics

This year's Olympics should be the best ever for coverage. Fring are looking for onsite commentators and as a means to encourage people are offering a 3.5G phone as your reporters tool. I hope that this will be the games of the micro blog. The potential for services like Twitter or Jaiku to open up access to the games in a way never seen before is encouraging. Essentially there are three dimensions to the games: Nation Event Athlete Typically broadcast of the games ha content defined by the nation. The USA channels closely follow the USA squad, the same for UK, NZ Australia etc. This is targeted at the national pride. For those people who are actively engaged in an event themselves, marathon, it's the event that is king. There will still be an element of "my country" but this is equally balanced by "my sport". The final element is the followers of a specific athlete. Friends, family and fans may elect to follow all of the events surrounding a person. ...

Cashless Society? Micropayments up for disruption

New Zealand, although small, is a long way ahead in many aspects compared to the UK. Some of their new schemes are being adopted by the UK government. What I remember from my first trip here 6 years ago was the impact of the EFTPOS system. Long before the UK was using Chip and PIN New Zealand was moving towards a cashless society with the ubiquitous EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer Point of Sale) cards and terminals. The system is good and robust. But the one place you can't find it for some of those micropayments is on the public transport system. Buses would benefit from some form of electronic payment system. There is one drawback of the system in it's implementation today, the time taking to pay. For small payments, say a Moro (think Mars) Bar at the local dairy (corner shop) is the time taken for the system to recognise the card and for the user to select the account (Cheque, Savings or Card) and input their PIN. This would certainly slow down the boarding process...