Free wifi

Thanks, WW. I was aware of that.

Surely the club should keep Wi-fi charges as they are, so that those who tether their own phones and use them are not penalised, by way of additional charges, for a service that they do not use.

On the odd occasion that I have tried the service, I have usually given up in disgust at the poor quality of the connection. Getting a better one off my phone using the data allowance.

For what it's worth , I think that if CMC start to notice a significant loss of revenue from wi-fi they will be left with 2 options ...1 to raise pitch prices to cover loss or 2.. remove wi -fi altogether from site's . Whichever road they take they will be in for a bumpy ride.

We don't often find a site Wi Fi that is good, when you look at the potential cost of installation and the effectiveness it makes you think what a waste of money, I am sure most commercial sites that have invested in Wi Fi are disappointed with the service provided as in most cases its unsatisfactory.

They probably have little chance of recouping the investment and receive lots of complaints about its performance. 

The problem for the Club was that they made the decision to invest in WiFi which is rumoured to have cost a great deal just as 4G capability was coming onstream. Also during that time Fibre Broadband has also come on stream which has required even more investment. Not only that but relatively cheap data deals for people using smart phones brings into question whether you would want to pay the Club an annual fee for WiFi as well as your phone contract or whatever method you use to buy data. There are a few sites on the network where the mobile signal is poor and it's good to have the Club wifi as a back-up. The trouble is for occasional use the Club's wifi is very expensive and it might actually get more customers, and therefore more income,  if it lowered the price. The Club have always been very reluctant to give much in the way of detail regarding the uptake of onsite wifi use so its very difficult to judge whether the investment was worthwhile. 

David

The way we improve the clubs WiFi is to use our booster which improves the signal no end and it also allows us to use multiple devices. If we are with relatives we allowed them to log on to our booster so they get internet for free

It might improve the signal but I can't see it is going to do much for the bandwidth. Although you can share your connection you still only have your login allocation to play with. On gold sites this can be fairly generous, (I have had over 10MB), on bronze often only 1 / 2 MB. Hardly enough for one let alone share.

In my understanding such free things are never free, just included in the price. Better they are an additional charge for those who require and choose to buy in!

I was rarely impressed with club WiFi and it proved far to hit-&-miss whether it would work or not. My solution turned out to offer far more benefits than just WiFI.

I put in a 300mb router that was powered directly from the 12v circuit so worked whether we were on hookup or not. The router had an RJ11 socket on the back which meant we could plug in a standard landline phone and it would work. The router is on a 3gb data and calls sim card. So we can make and receive calls as well as use the Internet. I put a dual polar 4G aerial on a mast that slides into the awning rail and provides 4 bars when our mobile phones don't show any signal at all. Total cost was around £200 + £7 contract for the sim. Well worth it to have decent Internet, phone connectivity and CCTV camera lookup to your van from your mobile whilst you're out.

A far better idea, would be for the description of sites to include the mobile phone signal quality. There is only 4 transmission networks, as a lot of networks use the same transmission systems. All too often, you get to a site and find there is no phone signal.

Before  someone says "why would you want a phone signal" , well some of us still have to work and keep in contact with family and friends.

It cant be that hard for the "facilities on site" section to have none / Poor or good for the phone signal quality, after all, the site operators know and can provide the information of the network they use to start things rolling.

Any thoughts, or has this already been raised and decided it was not worth it?