David Sifry, CTO of Sputnik and creator of Technorati, contributes the Point-Man perspective to the Subsidized Wi-Fi AP idea. It turns out that Sputnik's original business model had subsidization element to it!
"It's like a blast of deja vu to 2001, back when Sputnik was getting started, and our original business model. […] But we decided that we were pursuing the wrong business model, and changed our plans." – David Sifry
He then identifies and explains in detail the four factors that forced them to change their business model.
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Revenue split
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Legal issues
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Customer Service headaches
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The rise of "free" networks
Please read my original post, Tim Oren's post, my response, and then David Sifry's post so you can:
get high on fume, cool under a tree, get tickled by a breeze, and then finally taste the earth.
PS: This sort of interaction across blogs is what I had in mind in my Linking Blogs and Wikis post. I could have created a Wiki page somewhere with original post as a composite category to which Tim and David could have contributed their perspectives via their blogs.
