Best of the ISP-Lists

Fixed Wireless Business

Costing the Wireless Hotel

What works best for delivering high-speed services to hotel rooms? Is it more cost effective to use tap into existing wireline systems or start from scratch and set up wireless access points?

[December 24, 2002]

On the ISP-Wireless list in November, members discussed the most effective way to deliver high-speed Internet access in a hotel. CH queried the group, looking for an inexpensive solution:

"I'm looking for inexpensive way to serve hotel rooms using existing telephone wiring. I am proposing to serve the hotel with a wireless link, but need to take care of the room service. Any ideas?"

[MV recommended] "Cisco has infrastructure for both cable TV (CATV) over coaxial cable and existing phone wire for wireless and Cat-5 deployments. It includes a suite of management software applications including integration into hotel Property Management Software (PMS) applications. It's pretty comprehensive, enough so that I'm still wading through tons of documents trying to learn about it. But it looks like it's a very effective solutions, in terms of what it can do."

[CH replied] "Thanks, but in my experience, Cisco is not inexpensive. It may well be the best, and there are times when using the best gear is critical, but this particular project is calling for something less expensive."

[MV continued] "A few questions:

• Define inexpensive?
• What's the budget per room/port to bring this in?
• Also, what bandwidth requirements to the room are perceived?
• What is the existing hotel wiring?
• A lost of older facilities use two wire gateways for the rooms. Presumably they want to be able to use the phones at the same time they're online through your wireless feed?"

[SS said] "There are many options you mentioned to tackle the multiple tenant unit and multiple dwelling unit (MTU/MDU) market both wired and wirelessly. Some of these options come in the form of lowering their existing telco charges with VoIP or local loop replacement, segmented infrastructure, and guest services.

We have the opportunity to take some of the highest ranking hotels and clubs in the Upper Aspen Valley and stop over $40,000 of Qwest charges, taking the existing money they allocated to infrastructure for hard wired LANs and upgrade their PBX, IP distribution, and add a nice little ubiquitous cloud of wireless coverage and access from the valley floor to mountain tops, from Aspen down the valley

We have experienced many of the options, trials, and tribulations of our customers, needs, demands, and problems (or visibly lack thereof)."

[CE recommended] "Consider this: Coresma. Puts the data into the TV coax and you simply put a cable modem in each room."

[DW advocated] "TUT Systems—enough said. They don't have a wireless solution, but I think in a hotel managing PC cards is a nightmare. An indoor DSL solution is clearly the most cost effective for any large hotel."

[SS disagreed] "Tut is great, but a little expensive. This hotel and subsidiaries I spoke of (No. 3 in the US, No. 11 in the world) will be trading out their Tut gear."

[AP recommended] "Use wireless Ethernet CPE connected to a server connected to switches (one port for each room) connected to the various rooms. You can use two-pair of the Cat-3 or Cat-5 going to the rooms for your RJ-45 jack. Works fine for us."

[TE countered] "We just did a hotel in Lansing, Mich. It was all wireless inside. It was a third the price of running Cat-5 cabling."

[DW recommended] "In a very large situation, I could see DSL plus wireless making a good combo. I can get 1.5 Mbps just about anywhere in our area code, and put up a few access points. I think the same can be done on a smaller scale, run DSL to the far ends of the building and install access points. Just a thought to consider for your hotel access solution."

[TH qualified the question] "Will you be billing the rooms? If so you will need a managed solution (i.e. switches, DSLAM, etc.) and some sort of billing solution, like Nomadix or Atreus Systems.

If you aren't billing the rooms, then hubs will work, but guests will be able to see one another.

My personal recommendation for delivery of high-speed Internet access to hotel rooms is either an etherSPLIT or a DSL/HPNA type solution. Which router to use for the link is your call. The etherSPLIT setup looks like this. Hope this helps."

[MV concluded] "It is possible, likely even, that Cisco will not be the most inexpensive solution. I posted a series of questions when you first put up your request. Go back and take a look at them, and at the answers you come up with. The answers should at least somewhat help guide you. It may not be a question of the least expensive on the front end, but of what will work and deliver the lowest total cost of ownership."

—End