Wi-Fi Hotspot News

Earlier this year, the Digital Economy Bill (DEB) was forced through causing many a sleepless night in the Internet community. And now it would seem that the record labels have been having a blast, throwing fines here there and everywhere. They've been given the power to threaten fines but have rarely asked to produce any evidence.

The Ministry of Sound have been caught up recently for sending out 2,000+ letters to people asking for compensation. Most of the people claim they didn't do it. Whether they did or didn't is another story.

More rich lawyers at the ISPs cost.

All these letters are costing the industry a lot of money. At the same time, they've made a lot of lawyers a lot richer. Until now, there's been nothing to stop them from being sent either - no proof was particularly needed. But at last, it looks like the record labels will have to pay the ISPs to send them out.

However even this proposal is turning into a massive fiasco: "The new Act requires the evidential standards to be defined - but Ofcom are leaving this up the rights holders and ISPs to decide in the future".

What's more, it looks like the record labels are going to have to predict how many letters they're going to send out over the next 12 months, and pay in advance. Ridiculous.

You cannot give companies the power to fine the consumer without some control. Likewise, you cannot insist they pay so many months in advance for something that hasn't happened yet.

General Theft

The DEB was introduced to reduce online copyright theft and who'd disagree. Downloading illegal movies and music is wrong and it's damaging the economy. However, the main issue with the bill was the hastiness of it's introduction which happened overnight.

We need some balance brought to the equation again. As it turns out, most lawyers actually agree that the Bill is unenforceable - the only way to actually fine someone is to prove they downloaded the file by seizing their computer and examining the hard disk. 

Scoundrels

An acquaintance (hello Russell) was telling me that the movie companies are actaully seeding their movies onto the Internet so they have someone to target. Isn't that called entrapment?

What's the next turn the DEB will take? I would hope, with time, that it settles down and we can all get on with providing Internet service to people around the UK. In essence, it's a good ideas. But until then, we're just going to have to cope with the endless roller coaster.

Our recent popularity online has even managed to surprise ourselves. As you may already know, outside the PolkaSpots Factory, I assist numerous businesses with their online strategies, marketing plans and social media campaigns. It's these skills that have pushed us to the top of the online ladder. Who cares though?

No-one, it's not just about the number of people who follow us on Twitter and Facebook. It's about the network of real people we've built ourselves over the last 5 years.

Thanks to all of you who have supported our bold and brave ideas. We're looking forward to working with you all in the future. We're especially looking forward to making new friends around the world :)

At the start of September, we're introducing a new content filtering service that gives the control of your connection back to you. Or we can continue to manage it all for you...

Why would you want this? Because you can control what your customers are looking at and when they're looking at certain sites. You can even define peak and off peak times.

For example, you run a hotel that's full every evening with business customers. You can now block video streaming sites at peak times and prioritise the email / web traffic. Significantly improving the speed of your Internet connection.

For more information, please sign up for our monthly newsletter here.

It's flattering to know how many people are interested in the things we talk about at PolkaSpots Supafly Wi-Fi.

This week, we're due to hit the 1,000 Twitter followers mark!

You should follow us on Twitter too here.

It's a great way to stay updated with PolkaSpots and other interesting tech news. It's also a simple way to get in touch if and when you need something.

A San Francisco cafe has just scrapped their Wi-Fi connection after years of Internet leachers nearly sent them bust. The cafe has now thrown their Wi-Fi router in the bin and rightly so...after all they've got a business to run. If a single person's there all day taking up an entire sofa / table, they're losing money. 

According to the LA Times, "They're finding that Wi-Fi freeloaders who camp out all day nursing a single cup of coffee are a drain on the bottom line".

We agree wholeheartedly with this but the solution isn't to scrap Wi-Fi completely. The solution is to control the connection so people can't just use the Internet all day without purchasing something.

For example, the average session time at a PolkaSpots Wi-Fi Hotspots is 43 minutes (which includes hotel usage). Just enough time for a coffee and a cake.

Controlling the Internet connection with a Wi-Fi service like PolkaSpots Supafly Wi-Fi is simpler than you think. Maybe we should ship a box over to LA for this cafe to try.

There are numerous ways to control your Wi-Fi connection - you should call us for more details (020 7183 1471).

It's been a quiet few weeks on the PS blog and we hope you've not been too neglected. You've probably been enjoying the silence...

To our competitors, we're sorry that you've had nothing to plagiarise. You'll have some more copy soon. Looking forward to reading your blogs ;)

Everyone's on holiday

Typically the summer's our busiest period because everyone's on holiday enjoying our Wi-Fi Hotspots.

Spring Cleaning

During the summer, we usually do some 'spring' cleaning and you should start noticing some improvements to the PolkaSpots Network soon. In particular, we've been concentrating on mobile device compatibility. Sounds boring but it's great for those of you with iPhones, Blackberry's etc.

Sin Us a Song

Our new office manager, Sin Ang, started a couple of weeks ago and we're pleased to welcome her to PolkaSpots. You can meet the whole family here...

Public Wi-Fi

Public Wi-Fi recently launched with a bang - PW is an unsupported alternative to the premium Wi-Fi service PolkaSpots provide. Public Wi-Fi shipped more boxes than us in July. Find out more about Public Wi-Fi here.

Get a Life

It's the summer, we're trying to enjoy the sun and are worrying a lot less about Wi-Fi.

I'm trying to train for my triathlons whilst fitting in a social life and business(es). Filipe's mum and sister are over from Portugal for a month. Sin went to Venice and is enjoying late night summer shopping. Lydia's catching up with friends before they head off to new Universities this September. We have no idea what Nick gets up to...

Whatever you're doing, we hope you're enjoying it.

Most people think we're nuts because we don't put adverts on our Wi-Fi Hotspot login screens. We probably are.

When we asked our customers what they wanted they said: "Please can we have unlimited free Wi-Fi that's fast, safe and supported".

And that's what you get with PolkaSpots Supafly Wi-Fi. 

Our login screens are free from adverts; we won't make you sit through hours of terrible videos; we won't log you out and make you watch another.

If you give your customers what they want, they'll come. Simple

Getting noticed ain't easy these days. But PolkaSpots Wi-Fi are here to help! A helping hand for the web design freaks out there.

Design us a beautiful Wi-Fi Hotspot login screen and if we like it, we'll put it up on our worldwide Wi-Fi Hotspot network.

That's thousands and thousands of page views per day. You never know who might see your design...

Here's what you need to do:

1. Head over to polkaspots.com/branding to see what we've done before
2. Email your designs to getnoticed@polkaspots.com
3. Keep your fingers crossed!

Now you can use twitter for free at every PolkaSpots Wi-Fi Hotspot! No need to login, register or look at adverts. Just use it. Even at our paid ones.

Why have we done this? Because people love twitter and people love PolkaSpots too.

Because it's free, you'll get loads of new customers using your Wi-Fi Hotspot too!

It's proven that cafes that offer free Wi-Fi attract more customers and generate extra revenue. If you needed more proof, Starbucks are in the process of rolling out a completely free Wi-Fi network in the USA.

Would one of the world's largest organisations invest in this if it had no purpose or didn't attract customers?

Thanks to re-ality for the great snap...