Truckers Early Adopters of Tech

Truckers Early Adopters of Tech. Solid Washington Post story on truckers' use of Wi-Fi at truck stop hotspots: A few interesting new tidbits include the excellent observation that truckers are always early adopters of technology that has utility to their industry, like GPS and Wi-Fi, and that TruckStop.net reports 10,000 subscribers since October with just a few hundred locations. That's at least a few hundred grand a month, and doesn't count the drop-in users. What the article doesn't mention because it's too speculative is that if you combine a truckers' need of Internet connectivity for business and pleasure with the growing availability of high-speed cell data service, you could find truckers living the multi-modal connectivity life, pulling over at rest stops to use EDGE or 1xEv-DO, and then pulling into truck stops for the applications that need high bandwidth and/or high upload speeds. A little secret about TruckStop.net: a year's subscription averages less than $17 per month, but Boingo Wireless has a deal to aggregate their locations in the Boingo network, although I don't see locations live in the network yet. Boingo charges $21.95 for unlimited access for 12 months and then $34.95 per month thereafter; no cancellation penalties. A smart trucker with a Windows laptop should soon be able to use TruckStop.net and several thousand other locations. [link via Brian Chin]… [Wi-Fi Networking News]

Leave a comment