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Hotspots are extremely popular, but for the average business owner, getting one running can be a costly exercise.
Stark Technologies aims to change that with its hotspot service, which lets businesses make money from wireless surfers. For this review we got our hands on the kit for the wireless hotspot service. All you need is a broadband connection, which Stark can also provide.
The bundle comes with an ADSL router and the wireless box. Just plug them in and it's ready to run. We were impressed that we had a hotspot running in, literally, a matter of seconds.
Once there the service runs just like any other hotspot: new clients are redirected to a logon webpage. This can be accessed using paid-for cards or the pay-by-phone option. This currently works with O2 and charges billing to a mobile phone.
The card options are quite flexible, though, and include one, two, four and 24-hour cards, plus 60 and 120-minute Navigator cards. The latter cost more but uses per-second billing, which lets a customer use remaining minutes in another Stark hotspot.
With installation so simple and management taken care of offsite, the most interesting thing about the package is the profit sharing. For each access card or wireless PC Card sold the owner of the location takes a percentage cut of the profits.
Exact figures are difficult to estimate but typically range between 20p and 55p per access sold, plus residuals on every access. Once you reach £100 of profit, which you can monitor online, you get paid.
This is the easiest way of adding a hotspot to a business, although you get no control over how it works and there's no guarantee of turning a profit. That's not a big caveat and it's worth investigating further.
Contact: Stark Technologies
www.starktechnologies.com
Specifications:
- Broadband required (can be provided)
- ADSL router
- Managed Wireless Hotspot box
See also:
All Gadgets
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