Digital Divisions

Ad-supported broadband access?

Is the way to offset the cost of building wireless networks to provide Internet access through advertising? Los Angles-based FreeFi Networks has deployed a campus wide wireless network at Roxbury Community College in Boston. The company has partnered with Microsoft, a company called Front Porch which produces adware, and another company called Experience which provides a web-based recruiting platform.

This plan brings to mind NetZero from way back. Remember the boom days of the Internet when everything was free with an advertisement? That didn’t last with the collapse of the bubble. I haven’t seen the advertisements, but for a college, I would hope that they could provide Internet access to at least students and faculty without having to suffer through them. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.