Last week, Nomadix announced that it was awarded US Patent number 6,636,894 for an automatic redirection technique that may be a key to success for "hotspot" business models. As they say in their press release: "The functionality contained in this patent is an important component in the deployment of any Public-access network...because it instantly redirects potential customers to a venue owner or service provider's Web site, allowing them to conveniently sign up for the service."
An article about the patent in Broadband Wireless Exchange Magazine added that a "unique advantage of this system is that it operates in a manner transparent to the user. The portable computer user benefits from being able to access different computer networks (such as Wi-Fi HotSpots) without having to reconfigure the host computer in accordance with network specific configurations. The venue owner and network service provider also benefit by easily adding new subscribers."
Interviewed by Alex Goldman of ISP Planet, Nomadix's co-founder and CTO, Joel Short, claimed that they would not use their patent to threaten hotspots. "We want to promote the market, not to shut networks down," he said. "We are encouraging vendors to license our software..." However, he would not say how much a license costs. Still, Rob Flickenger (author of Building Wireless Community Networks) points out that the Nomadix patent covers only one technique for redirection, not the general principle. So it remains to be seen how much it will hamper the development of public access Internet.