Would you pay for Wi-Fi in an RV park for better service?

Take the poll below.

A company that places Wi-Fi service in RV parks says, in a press release aimed at RV park owners, that charging for Wi-Fi is better for them - and their customers- than offering free Wi-Fi. Not only will charging for Wi-Fi add to their bottom line, but customers will get better service because their company has an incentive to provide Wi-Fi that works.

RVers do often complain that the "free" Wi-Fi service is less than desirable. Service may not reach all parts of the park and, when it stops working, the owner cannot be found or may not rush to restore service. Some RVers do download large files, slowing the service down for everyone. An outside provider might respond more quickly, or at least that is the theory.

In your RV travels, would you be willing to pay for Wi-Fi access in an RV park or would you choose the park with free Wi-Fi? Or, does Wi-Fi access not matter? Possibly you have your own equipment like satellite Internet or an Aircard? Vote below and see how you stack up. Jaime Hall Bruzenak

Comments

[Ed Greenberg]

I have an aircard, so the only reasons for park wifi are if we're outside the aircard service area, or if we want to upload large chunks of data, such as photos or videos.

If I paid for wifi, I expect that I would be excruciatingly critical of the quality of internet service.

[Jaimie Hall Bruzenak]

I agree, and we only pay for Wi-Fi if the aircard doesn't work.

Jaimie

[LindaH]

Same here: We have an air card and would use park WiFi only if we were out of the air card's service area. Would we pay for it? It depends. If we were staying only overnight, then no. If we were staying up to a week or more, then I probably would...depending on the cost.

[Daniel and Trudy Ellison]

The speed of WiFi systems by far out paces the 3G networks and if a property has a good provider that can provide full park coverage at a fee I always pay. We've found few providers that can actually pull off full property deployments with quality connectivity and speed. WiFiRV is the one company that I've seen over and over again that has reliable service, great customer support with people that have English as their primary language and from what I've been told by many property owners they didn't even pay to get the system installed. I don't understand it but it seems this WiFiRV company is funded by some pretty big telecommunication finance gurus who know how to leverage the lack of 3G in rural America.

[Denise from Ark]

I guess I need to figure out why pdanet never started working on my phone. I don't even know what it means to "download large chunks of data" - I open emails with pictures and surf the net to read magazines and newspapers, and that stuff is all picture heavy.

The park we stayed at in Bakersfield last year let the internet provider charge for WiFi - by the night or by the month. The place we stayed had only two bars of signal and was basically like not having internet. So...the provider lost our money because we opted to attach internet to the free cable provided by the park, for about $34 a month. Never a day's problem after that.

The park in Tulsa where we are now and have stayed before has Wild Blue service and the same issues as previously mentioned. But - the spot where we are now has a full signal and I know that if it gets rainy, I'll have to go out to the box and reboot from the breaker. So we're using it. It's "free" wi-fi (we don't pay extra) but there are a limited number of minutes available each month and when that limit is reached, nobody can connect until the first of the month.

It's made me change my habits. At home with our cable internet, I just leave that puppy on 24/7. Here, even though I'd like to be available by IM to friends, I tend to open a lot of windows and download my email several times per day then disconnect. I read the windows already open before reconnecting. It works, but it's certainly less convenient.

We tried to sign up for cable internet the last time we were here, but it was $60/mo so we made the best of it. I need to get the pdanet on my phone working (same as an aircard - turns the phone into a modem) and make more use of that.

We don't have 3G service here, so if time was an issue I'd still log on to the local wifi.

[Jaimie Hall Bruzenak]

It looks like Daniel and Trudy represent the company that put out the press release I referred to.

Denise- it sounds like you are very creative in getting a signal and your email! Getting your emails on your PDA will take the pressure off.

Jaimie

[Marlan]

I actually interviewed a commercial park owner (one that runs/owns several parks) and she said that they throw WiFi in with the rent as charging for the WiFi was more hassle than it was worth. The really look to keep their management and administrative burden very low. She said that without WiFi (included free) that they saw their attendance rates decline.

However, my wife Sheri and I have found that park WiFi just doesn't work that well for many different reasons. We're thinking about the Clear/Sprint dual mode WiMax/3G as a substitute.

[Jaimie Hall Bruzenak]

Marlan, I think many RVers are like you- they pick a park with free Wi-Fi. And, yes, we don't go to a park without Wi-Fi normally even though we do have an Aircard. And, we feel it should be included in the price of the site rental.

Jaimie