When you choose a wireless location, pay special attention to the amount of customer traffic already in the facility. Because Wi-Fi is in the early stages of adoption, the most successful locations already have a fair amount of traffic. The ideal customer base tends to be professional, and technologically savvy.

Ideal locations include the following areas:

• Urban centers where there are a large number of business travelers and a large concentration of professionals who work from home

• Suburban centers with good visibility from a major thoroughfare or transportation corridor

• Close proximity to college or corporate campuses, where a large concentration of users with laptop computers exists

The ideal hotspot location already has the types of customers needed for a successful wireless business. These customers are divided into two categories: Those that are close to the location in terms of where they work and live or those that are “passing through” the location.

The first target market includes:

• Home office workers

• Freelancers

• Independent consultants

• Telecommuters

• Creative professionals (writers, journalists, and graphic designers)

This group lives near a Wi-Fi location and uses the location as an "office away from the home office". They like to get out of the house and do some work in a social cafe-styled environment. This group tends to enjoy unlimited access to the wireless connection. They are cost conscience because cost of wireless service is probably coming from their own pocket.

The second target market includes:

• Traveling professionals

• Traveling professionals

• Road warriors

• Consultants

This group does not live near the location but they find themselves in town for a day, a week, or even a month. Their company may not have a satellite office or temporary office space to accomodate Internet service This group tends to use a pay-per-use daily unlimited plan because they are putting the expense on their company’s credit card and they do not want to deal with having to watch their minutes. Also, they do not want to be locked into a monthly subscription since they will be leaving town soon. Examples of ideal locations for this market include airports, hotels, and convention centers.