Hotspot and Paypal integration...!!!!!

[andreas_georgio]

Hello, I have a client that is interested in building a WiFi solution that will allow users to gain paid access to the Internet. Billing can be offered through Paypal. Would it be possible to achieve this by using Ruckus WISPr/Hotspot services???

[michael_brado]

Hotspot is a WISPR
implementation that can redirect users to an external WEB server for
login.  This WEB server can be a complex
series of pages including support for direct billing and backend support.
Authentication can be done to the Zone Director Local Data base, external
RADIUS, Active Directory or LDAP servers. The Hotspot also provides for Walled Garden
definition that permits unauthenticated users to access specific WEB sites.

How your backend services apply payment methods (PayPal or other) is not specific to the wireless service.

We have an Application note on our website that might be helpful.

http://c541678.r78.cf2.rackcdn.com/appnotes/appnote-wispr.pdf

RADIUS accounting allows you to register the amount of time a users is connected, for billing purposes.

6.1 RADIUS Accounting Behavior
In ZD-managed network, ZD plays the role of RADIUS client, which is responsible
for sending Accounting Request. The events to trigger Accounting Request with
different Acct-Status-Type are listed as follows.
   • ZD sends Accounting-On to external RADIUS server when an AP joins.
   • ZD sends Accounting-Off when an AP leaves. Thus the AP restart operation
triggers Accounting-Off and then Accounting-On.
   • ZD sends Accounting-Start and Accounting-Stop when a client associates and
disassociates respectively.
   • ZD periodically sends Interim-Update for an associated client.

[eizens_putnins]

In short -- of cause it is possible,  as with almost any other wireless system. But if it makes sense -- it's a different question. What you are asking is actually old WISPR solution (~10 years at least), quit standard and a bit old fashioned.
Seem that now focus is moved from payable WLAN access to free access with ads and analytic. If this simple business model will work, heavily depends on region. In our country, for example, it would had no chance, because nobody would pay for wi-fi, customers would just switch to they 4G service.

[john_d]

As a consumer who avidly loves wifi as a concept, I unfortunately have to agree with Eizens. I really like the concept of wifi being able to deliver a better-than-cellular experience to customers, but too often I find locations either skimping on AP quality, quantity, or backhaul speeds.

For example, I've noticed that the Monterey Bay Aquarium uses Ruckus equipment, and they actually offer pretty good 20+mbit wifi throughout their premises the last time I was there. Kudos!

But I just got back from the Hyatt Regency on Embarcadero in downtown SF, and I saw they were using Ruckus 7363's, but I could barely connect to their wifi to load up the captive portal demanding money. When I get an experience like that on wifi but could turn off wifi and get 10+mbit on LTE, I feel almost no incentive to pay for wifi.

Unless you can convince your customers that your wifi can deliver better-than-LTE speeds / prices, it's really hard to charge for it. Even if it's free, a vast majority of customers have trouble trusting that a wifi hotspot will be any good. Surely they've tried countless free wifi hotspots that are crap.

I really would love for this to work. I believe the technology is a much better idea for covering a hotel / apartment complex / dense urban area compared to cellular towers spaced miles apart, and had hoped that things like ATTWIFI / EAP-SIM would mean cellular vendors would spend more money developing proper broadband hotspots. I still try the wifi wherever I go, but  I would say only 10% of the time I am not sorely disappointed.