Hotels running short of bandwidth for guests

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brett Glass <nnsquad () brettglass com>
Date: December 30, 2008 2:13:48 PM EST
To: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>, nnsquad () nnsquad org
Subject: [ NNSquad ] Re: Hotels running short of bandwidth for guests

At 09:48 PM 12/29/2008, Lauren Weinstein wrote:


> Hotels running short of bandwidth for guests
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/business/30internet.html

This is no surprise. Our ISP has multiple hotels as clients, and one of
our selling points is the fact that we can meter and regulate bandwidth.
Our authentication and encryption scheme protects travelers from ID  
theft
and prevents "drive by bandwidth theft:" unauthorized parties driving up
to the hotel, logging in, using bandwidth, and then pulling away without
ever checking in. And, yes, we do prevent guests from operating servers
in their rooms, because this would degrade the network.

Ironically, there are some hotel chains (e.g. Ramada) which have adopted
a chain-wide policy of leaving their access points open to all comers.
These hotels quickly develop problems with bandwidth saturation. Other
chains (e.g. the various Hilton brands) insist that every hotel get its
Internet from one nationwide suppliers, cutting out local ISPs. This
seems like a good idea until the user needs support and is directed to
a non-English-speaking representative overseas -- or until the hotel  
itself
needs support. As a local ISP with our own homegrown technology and  
local
support staff, we can help with these problems -- if the hotel lets us.
(We still haven't been able, for example, to help the local Hampden Inn,
because it's a Hilton brand and they aren't allowed to buy our  
services.)

--Brett Glass





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