WorldSpot services pricing

[TCWTID]

We are an operator in the South of Spain, we own our 5GHz wireless network (coverage of about 200Km2) and our own internet backbone network. We offer our resident customers home/business internet and VoIP telephone services (we also own our VoIP telephone network) and we are looking to add HotSpot points within our current network infrastructure to allow "non-resident" customers to access our internet.

Worldspot is your solution for reselling all this bandwidth.

The pricing option that we would likely take would be the "unlimited" usage option instead of tickets ... whilst you appear to be the cheapest, we currenly pay 15% commission to our current operator ... and we want to have more control over the customer.

Do you mean unlimited online billing?

Hi, I mean that we do not want to do the Revenue Share option.

1) Some hotspot points will be individually located whereas others might be clustered in one location (i.e. a campsite with 10 dispersed points for extended wireless coverage). In the scenario where we have a cluster, there will only be one internet gateway from the cluster  and one SSID... the other WRTs will only be to extend the wireless reach ... will this count as one hotspot or will each WRT count as one?

I refer to your text "The per hotspot pricing is based on the hotspot mac address. You are allowed to have multiple hotspots configured on the same hotspot account, but you will still be charged per hotspot." ... which is a little unclear.

You can have your hotspots configured exactly the same way (on the same hotspot nasID). WorldSpot can still make a difference with the "calledMAC" radius parameter (hotspot mac address).
If you use WDS range extension, this will still be considered as one single hotspot, as there is still one single chillispot instance. (beware of free memory if you use a WRT)
However, if you want to use a OLSR freifunk mesh (http://wirds.net) which is more scalable, there will be one chillispot instance per node. In this case, worldspot might be offering another per fixed IP based pricing.
If your hotspot reaches more than 30 simultaneous users, you will be automatically charged some more.

2) The monthly billing is for 31 days ... does this mean that all credits purchased for the month will expire at the end of 31 days or will any unused credits remain in our account to be used later?

I ask this as it will be unclear how active any particular hotspot will be ... therefore we do not want to buy too many and loose what we do not use ... and subsequently, we do not want to purchase too few credits and loose potential customers. We would rather buy too many, knowing that we can reuse the remaining credits later.

The credits have unlimited validity, you never loose unused credits. Every month your credit account will be automatically debited. You will have to make sure your account does not run out of credits. The more you buy credits, the cheaper they are.

3) We intend to deploy 100's of WRTs (as said previously, some will be individual and others in clusters) ... can we have a central account for the credits which can be used by all the WRTs. For example, we have 100 WRTs deployed and we buy 1000 credits ... can the 1000 credits be used by all the hotspots, therefore ensuring that the most active WRTs always have enough and the low activity WRTs are consuming credit ... I suppose I am looking for a credit balance system to ensure the best profitability across the whole HotSpot network.

The credit balance is already implemented, and automatically debited by all your hotspots subscriptions. This means that there is nothing to do (just to creditate your account with a sufficient number of credits every 3 or 6 month or every year if you want)
You can even choose that some low usage hotspots gets billed per ticket, or use revenue sharing online billing.

4) We have our own "online billing account" with a service by 2checkout.com. Would it be possible to use this instead of PAyPal? ... we also have a PayPal account, which some of our customers say is too complicated (especially if they do not speak Spanish and they are setting up a new account within Spain ... it defaults to Spanish language becuase your IP address originates in Spain).

I had a look at 2checkout.com. 49$ setup and  5.5% + 0.45$ looks like a little expensive.

I will look into this and will let you know if these rates are what we pay ... if so, then I agree these are more expensive than PayPal. However, the 2checkout.com function literally takes the customer from our page to a payment page (just add your credit card details and confirm) then it takes the customer straight back to our page.

The average customer is stupid (from a technology point of view) so making the process as "idiot-proof" as possible will reduce the customers frustration and also the support calls we will be getting.

I know that paypal requiring the customer address to register an account is a killer. Worldspot is using the Paypal API express checkout which is the simplest interface (should be a one page payment). But there is actually a bug on their side, the customer is asked the paypal account and is proposed to register a new account instead of directly go to the account registration and payment page.

Is this being addressed by PayPal?

I still haven't found a comparable international service. There is also one feature that is not yet implemented. I will be implementing one day a post-paid surfing. The user gives an authorization to be debited (e.g. 40$), then he surfs, then he will only be debited the amount he did really use (23.40$).

That would be interesting.

If you still want 2checkout, I could add it with a setup fee.

BTW ... I am very impressed with your translation reponses ... it is good that we give back and not just take! (I would have offered to do the Spanish but someone beat me too it).

I think there are updates remaining to be done...

[WorldSpot]

Hi

Please don't answer inside the quote, this make it difficult to read.

I will look into this and will let you know if these rates are what we pay ... if so, then I agree these are more expensive than PayPal. However, the 2checkout.com function literally takes the customer from our page to a payment page (just add your credit card details and confirm) then it takes the customer straight back to our page.

So does paypal express checkout. It is (was) a 2 page payment process.
First page entering credit card+login/password + address
Second page is a confirmation.

Is this being addressed by PayPal?

Yes they are supposed to be working on it (since several weeks/months). Several users have complained about that.

[rclark]

I have a problem regarding the implementation of the pricing on 15-May.

Can you propose a solution.

- I have customers using my easyHotspot account
- Some of those customers are using unlimited tickets for their staff, but selling tickets to their customers.
- I will have to disable the Unlimited tickets on my account - (because some other customers will want to use USAGE (per ticket) billing)
- That means I will have to migrate some of my existing customers to their own hotspot acct - that I setup under the reseller program
- The reseller program is not operational yet.

How do I keep these customers (that need unlimited tickets) running after 15-May, and before I can create a reseller acct?

Regards

Rob

[rclark]

# Tickets MUST have an expiration time, otherwise they won't be allowed to connect under the usage based pricing. Maximum expiration time is 30 days.
# If you use an unlimited ticket usage period then choose to stop it to get usage based pricing, all unfinished tickets that were started inside the unlimited period will be charged as if started in the usage based period.

Please clarify in this scenario:
 - Hotspot with no monthly subscription (USAGE model)
 - Two Access Profiles
    - Unlimited
    - 1 hour

User attempts to login with

1) 1 hr ticket. Will it work?

2) Unlimited Ticket. Will it work?

Thanks

Rob

PS... trying to understand if I have to Delete my unlimited access profile or not - when I will have a mixture of MONTHLY subscription and USAGE hotspots sharing same acct.

[WorldSpot]

1 hr ticket. Will it work?

If there is an expiration time, yes

2) Unlimited Ticket. Will it work?

No, only with the unlimited subscription.

I have to find a solution for your owners to login. I think the best solution is to use a multi-ssid firmware, one for private use. I don't know the state of the multi-ssid firmwares.

[DenbyWireless]

I have to find a solution for your owners to login. I think the best solution is to use a multi-ssid firmware, one for private use. I don't know the state of the multi-ssid firmwares.

Under Coova, there is an option for UnAuth Mac Addresses. Perhaps hotspot Staff people could use this option for unlimited access, while the paying people will continue to go thru the HS access.

I'm not sure this would work, but just a thought.

[WorldSpot]

Or you might sell your customer another access point for private use... 

[rclark]

I have just clicked on the 'Buy Credits' button and successfully purchased some credits.

The initial PayPal page is in French. Luckily - I can read enough to click on the 'Already have a PayPal acct' button.

But ... many others might abandon the process at that point.

FYI

[WorldSpot]

oops

Thanks for the feedback. I will change that.

[Fitzy]

The firm that I bought the hot spot hardware from set up the WorldSpot Account and did the first run of tickets. I had no input into that.

HOWEVER he made the error (without bothering to ask us first) of deciding that we were going to charge for WiFi access and apparently listed it with you (in error) as a chargeable service on your site..

This is NOT true the WiFi HotSpot service is and always has been free to users.
See the webpage at http://www.allawa.com which advertises it is free to all rooms.
The Account with you is: " allawainn " and you can see the usage rate in that account.

NOTE: While the WiFi site is free to the users, we are happy to pay something for your excellent service, but the explanation makes my head spin, and the Euro credits thing is a bit confusing when you think and deal in Australian Dollars.

Another complication is that I installed the system at my cousin's small motel (about 3-1/2 hours drive from me) where he has one or two WiFi users a night and I would not like the free WiFi system to stop while we sort this out..

Please advise what you think I should do asap.
If I could have found an email point of contact with WorldSpot I would have asked these questions a few weeks ago.

Should I get him (my cousin, definitely a non-computer literate person) to set up a Pay-Pal account asap?
NOTE: From personal experience it recently took me more than 10 days to get a PayPal service set up and money put into it.

I wish you would allow credit card use - It's so much easier and the currency exchange looks after itself.

[WorldSpot]

Hi

The firm that I bought the hot spot hardware from set up the WorldSpot Account and did the first run of tickets. I had no input into that.

HOWEVER he made the error (without bothering to ask us first) of deciding that we were going to charge for WiFi access and apparently listed it with you (in error) as a chargeable service on your site..

This is NOT true the WiFi HotSpot service is and always has been free to users.
See the webpage at http://www.allawa.com which advertises it is free to all rooms.
The Account with you is: " allawainn " and you can see the usage rate in that account.

WorldSpot technically cannot make a difference between free service with tickets and paying service with tickets.

NOTE: While the WiFi site is free to the users, we are happy to pay something for your excellent service, but the explanation makes my head spin, and the Euro credits thing is a bit confusing when you think and deal in Australian Dollars.

Another complication is that I installed the system at my cousin's small motel (about 3-1/2 hours drive from me) where he has one or two WiFi users a night and I would not like the free WiFi system to stop while we sort this out..

Please advise what you think I should do asap.
If I could have found an email point of contact with WorldSpot I would have asked these questions a few weeks ago.

Should I get him (my cousin, definitely a non-computer literate person) to set up a Pay-Pal account asap?
NOTE: From personal experience it recently took me more than 10 days to get a PayPal service set up and money put into it.

I wish you would allow credit card use - It's so much easier and the currency exchange looks after itself.

In the access profile, you can check "offer this access for free", in this case everybody will gain access to the hotspot. This service is free.
You can do this until you can make the paypal payment.
As far as I know, you can make a paypal payment with a credit card in just 2 web pages. I don't understand why you would need 10 days? Can you tell a little more about that?

Thank you for using WorldSpot.net

[tonespot]

I have just bought and setup my router for hotspot and I've registered for the worldspot.net hotspot service. My problem now is how to buy credit.
In the first place, the prices were quoted in Euro. I'm in Nigeria and I only have a MasterCard with with I can pay in USD. Paypal does not support payment from Nigeria (even though the Paypal page wasn't in English).
What do you suggest that I do?

[WorldSpot]

The french name for nigeria is niger. It is in the country list of the payment page.
Can you please try?

The paypal page french language seems to be a paypal bug, as I configured english language.
I'm still investigating on this.

Thanks

[tonespot]

The french name for nigeria is niger. It is in the country list of the payment page.
Can you please try?

The paypal page french language seems to be a paypal bug, as I configured english language.
I'm still investigating on this.

Thanks

Niger is a different (French) country north of Nigeria (English). Anyway, I could ask a friend in the UK to help pay, but how can this be done (if it has to be done from my login)?

[WorldSpot]

Niger is a different (French) country north of Nigeria (English)

oops...

Have you tried selecting a different country?
I don't see how you could pay without paypal. Do you know another payment system that works in your country?