Wireless network operators have historically offered phones on the cheap with the stipulation that you sign a 1-2 year contract for their service. In addition to that lock-in period, the operator typically cripples the phone in areas that may compete with their own offerings. For example, Verizon cripples the Bluetooth features on their phones so that you can’t move pictures back and forth between your phone and your PC without going over their data network. And their Wi-Fi enabled phones certainly wouldn’t support calls over a VOIP service such as Skype.

So how will this affect the typical business owner?

• You will pick your phone based on the features that you need (not that the operator wants you to have).
• You will pick your wireless operator based on the best service available in your area.
• Phones may cost more since they’re not being subsidized by a service plan. But if other carriers follow suit, you will see manufacturers producing various editions of the same phone for different types of users.
• Service plans should cost less since they’re not being used to subsidize handsets (yeah, right!). But you may see operators trying to lock you into longer contract periods, exploring plans with differing service levels, or even completely divesting themselves of certain lines (e.g., VCAST won’t survive that long).

I’m ecstatic about this change. I think the wireless network operators have impeded progress for too long. It’s about to change.

Question: You run a destination type SMB like Starbucks.  How do you use the WiFi service you are offering them to build a community of your customers?  Do you allow them to engage each other a la Facebook or MySpace?  Do you give them the opportunity to "speak" to you directly?

Regardless, one of my clients has retail locations where free wireless internet access is offered. Because a single broadband connection is shared between the hotspot and the corporate systems, they have had to put in a lot of effort to ensure that their corporate systems are secure. As WiFi phones start becoming the norm and as city-wide WiFi projects continue to fail, more and more SMBs will want to ensure that their customers have WiFi access while on-premise.

I think there is an opportunity here for someone to build a router that makes the process plug-and-play. The router plugs into your cable/DSL modem as usual. An unsecured public WiFi network is automatically setup. Also, a second WiFi network is automatically created for internal use with all the key security setups defaulted. Alternatively, an Ethernet port could be used for a secured wired connection to the corporate network.

Seems to me, someone like Cisco, Netgear or Linksys could easily build this. Maybe they already do. If so, they need to make it easy to find on their website because I don’t see it. Am I just missing it?

The next step will be to have WiFi networks readily available. While Billings is working on a WiFi network, and we all know where hotspots are. But it’s going to be a long time before public networks (here or anywhere else) are the rule.

I think an opportunity will exist for progressive SMBs to turn the WiFi trend into a competitive advantage through creative uses of their own hotspots. So I’m going to start a recurring post on this site containing possible WiFi applications for consumer oriented SMBs.

I’ll start off with a real simple one:

Collect instant customer feedback via a 1-click satisfaction rating. SMBs and consumers will subscribe to an as-yet-unbuilt-service with a short catchy name. The SMB will get a short code and some window decals to place by their door. Customers will do a few quick clicks on their way out to provide feedback on their experience. For this effort, they will be provided with a coupon for that or some complementary store. The SMB will receive the feedback instantly and will get the customer information for their marketing database.