Canadians would rather buy wi-fi access by the hour than by the day, says a
study published this month by the Ottawa office of
Decima Research, a polling and market research
firm. In quizzing actual and potential users of wi-fi hotspots, Decima found
that Canadians would rather pay-as-they-surfed, buying time on a wireless
LAN in hour-long or two-hour-long chunks. Buying a 24-period of time wasn't
so popular.
Moreover, those polled said they would pay between $4 and $10 for that one
or two-hour chunk of time.
[I'm afraid I cannot provide an URL of this report at Decima's site. Decima
e-mailed me a PDF copy of the report. Contact info for Decima is at the link
above and these findings are from the firm's Report on Wireless of
Dec. 3.]
Interestingly, the survey found support for all-you-can-eat monthly pricing
plans with an arbitrary price point of $25. The survey said students and
Albertans (?!?) were the most enthusiastic about the monthly flat fee idea.
And here's another encouraging stat: Decima said that one in 10 Canadians —
not one in 10 Canadian Internet users, but one in 10 Canadians — have
already accessed a wi-fi hotspots. Folks in Ontario and B.C. love being
wireless the most (12 per cent said they have used a hotspot) while those in
Manitoba and Saskatchewan are little behind the curve (6 per cent of those
living in Canada's flatlands say they've surfed from a hotspot.) Younger
Canadians are more likely than older ones to have used wi-fi technology.
Decima also finds that Canadians use hotspots for fun as much as they do for
business.
The survey of more than 2,000 adult Canadians was conducted by telephone
from November 13 to 23. Decima said the results of the survey are accurate
to within 2.2 per cent, 19 times out of 20.