board77

I'm thinking about investing in an internet vending machine to place in a public place. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about a foray as such:

1. Do malls, airports, or other places generally allow people to put these things around? If so, what kind of a fee/ tribute is paid to the mall?

2. In your opinion, is this a good idea?


Any info is welcome. thanks!

1a. I've seen Internet vending machines, but few compared to Cafes or Hotspot services in "regular" cafes. Specially the latter are around in airports etc.; there's not a single lounge without WLAN access.

1b. About 1€/h.


2. Hmm.


Edited: some obvious stupidity.

What do you mean by an internet vending machine -

If you mean a kiosk so folk can generally browse I am not sure of the long term value of these.

As mump says hotspots are becoming really prolific and as a fequent business traveller I cannot think of an instance nowadays where I would use a kiosk.

in respect of cost I have no idea, certainly you would have to put in a significant number to make an airport interersted, and then there are a load of other costs to consider, not least of which is maintenance - the costs in starting the thing when some bugger crashes it - you may be able to remote start - but is that guarenteed.

The other cost would be bandwidth which I guess would be a fixed charge whether the machine is busy or idle.

Then you would need to look at payment - there are a number of companies who will look after billing for you - but again that is a cost to consider.

Having in a past life been involved in due diligence on IT business ideas, I would need an awful lot of convincing that you had a winning scheme

I would just say have caution that you don't get ripped off. Obviously I don't know anything about the company that you're dealing with but there was recently a story on the news about people investing in movie rental kiosks where nothing worked and they were out quite a bit of cash.

Though an internet kiosk, that actually seems like a great idea. Kind of like the things they have at the airport. Much more practical than the movie rental kiosks, at any rate.

thanks, everyone.

the internet kiosks are a bit more than i can afford right now, anyway....but I was just wondering about details. the bandwidth, & having to restart the thing when it crashes were two things i didn't think about. thanks.

maybe i'll just settle for a gumball machine.

Some years ago I was at a banking convention where our guest speaker said it would really pay off to invest in ATM's. Everyone pooh-poohed the idea. A vending machine for money? Ha!

*sigh* No, I didn't invest.

Japan has free computer\internet access all over the place. Especially in Tokyo. I've seen one right next to some vending machines, others in parks under a nice veranda sort of thing. It's pretty cool.

I would use them. Especially if they were cheaper than the average internet cafe.