Barriers exist to business traveler Wi-Fi use

IDG News Service - A Gartner Inc. study cited educational, cultural and financial reasons for what it concludes is a low rate of Wi-Fi hot spot use among business travelers. Although there are more than 60,000 hot spots around the globe, they are used by just 25% of U.S. business travelers and 17% of U.K. business travelers, the study found.
"If you look at a smaller segment of the audience, like the business traveler, the expectation is that there'd be more traction in that group as opposed to the entire population, where you'd expect it to be a small percentage," said Delia MacMillan, a Gartner analyst and the report's author. The usage rate isn't necessarily bad or disappointing, but it indicates that the Wi-Fi market might still be early in its evolution, despite what some company marketing materials might suggest, she said.
Some hot-spot operators may find Gartner's results encouraging.
"What the report is saying is that half of the people who have Wi-Fi in their laptops use it, which is pretty good," said Alex French, director of operations at Bitbuzz Ltd., a hot-spot operator in Ireland. Gartner expects that by the end of this year, half of all laptops in use will have Wi-Fi either built in or available via a PC card.
Laptop makers started building Wi-Fi into their products about two years ago. The replacement cycle for laptops is about three years, French said. "As that kicks in, we'll see a higher and higher proportion of laptops that are Wi-Fi-enabled," he said.
The Gartner study also found that companies often won't pay for Wi-Fi charges because Wi-Fi may not be included in their contracts with telecommunications providers. Generally, financial issues were more important to business travelers than security, the study found.
"At the moment, the payment methods available can make it more difficult for users to expense them," French said. Hot-spot operators are beginning to address some of the billing issues that business customers might have. For example, Bitbuzz has a partnership with Vodafone Group PLC that enables customers to add their Bitbuzz hot-spot charges onto their regular Vodafone mobile phone bills.
"That makes it easier for them to expense Wi-Fi," French said.
Also, it's becoming increasingly common for hot-spot operators and hotels to allow their customers to pay Wi-Fi charges as part of their hotel bills, instead of paying for Wi-Fi separately on a credit card. That can make it easier for some travelers to expense the Wi-Fi connection. Bitbuzz has seen a gradual progression this year away from separatepayments in hotels to customers choosing to include Wi-Fi charges on their hotel bills, French said.
More flexibility in billing and payment methods ought to encourage business travelers to use hot spots, MacMillan said. "Any flexibility in usage or charging is sorely needed and will increase uptake," she said.
Increased awareness of Wi-Fi should also help make hot spots more acceptable for end users and IT departments alike.
Currently, many IT departments simply ban the use of hot spots because they haven't been able to formulate a company policy for how workers should be allowed to use them. As hot spots become more widespread and are used more regularly, IT departments should begin to create internal policies for how mobile workers can use them, MacMillan said.