Cringely posted his weekly column on PBS.org with a proposal for a new business plan for WiFi. The column was pretty firmly trashed by WiFi Networking News in “Cringely Builds Cloud Castles” and denounced and defended on Slashdot in Cringely Proposes New WiFi Plan.
My take? I’m no visionary (evidence: Amigas, FoxPro, disco), but I don’t see the huge attraction of “TCP/IP Everywhere.” As a business traveler, I’ve occasionally dipped into free or per-pay WiFi when in a rush to get something done, but I much prefer the hotel with 10 Mbps Ethernet. I’m not convinced you’ve got to have WiFi everywhere. If your local coffeeshop is a favorite hangout and they charge for access, you’ll probably pay for something there, but for the majority of us, I’m just not convinced this is something we’ll pay for over and above the connectivity we’ve got.