Method for providing wireless services

Abstract

A method and system for providing distributed network access point installation and management. A network provider installs and / or operates a plurality of access points at locations of a retail entity. Each access point may provide services such as Internet access, and / or content such as audio, video, text, and / or graphics, among other types of services. A carrier, such as a telephone or cable company, may compensate the network service provider for installation and operation of the access points. The carrier may in turn charge its subscribers for network access at the retail entity locations. A plurality of different carriers may provide compensation and allow respective subscriber access. The network access points may be configured to allow each carrier to present a point of presence to its subscribers at the retail entity locations. The installed network may also provide service for retail entity back office functions.

Description

BACKGROUND [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] This invention relates generally to wired and / or wireless network data communications, and more specifically to a system and method for installing and / or providing a network infrastructure in various retail entity locations to offer network services to support customers of one or more carrier entities. The invention also relates to a business method which enables installation and / or provision of wired and / or wireless network services in various retail entity locations. [0003] 2. Description of Related Art [0004] Various types of wired and wireless infrastructures are being developed to service users of computing devices, such as portable computing devices (PCDs). Currently, numerous network service providers are attempting to install wireless network infrastructures in various locations, such as airports, hotels, office buildings, shopping malls, fast-food restaurants, coffee shops, and / or fueling stations (e.g., gas stations, truck...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010] The network service provider may receive a payment from a first carrier entity for installation and / or operation of the one or more of wireless access points at the locations of the retail entity. Thus, instead of requiring the network service provider to recover installation and / or maintenance costs from usage of the wired and / or wireless access points over a lengthy amount of time, the network service provider may receive an up-front payment from one or more carrier entities. Since carrier entities already have a large installed base of subscribers, each carrier entity may be in a better position to recover the installation and / or maintenance costs through subscriber billing and usage. This provides an improved business method and / or system for installing and maintaining wired and / or wireless access points at various distributed locations.

[0012] The retail entity may receive a payment from the carrier entity for the carrier entity to offer services at a subset of or all of the locations of the retail entity. Alternatively, the carrier entity may receive payment from the retail entity for offering services at a subset of or all of the locations of the retail entity, since the offered services of the carrier entity at locations of the retail entity may provide the retail entity with increased customer visitation, e.g., including opportunities to sell more goods and / or services to subscribers of the carrier entity.

Problems solved by technology

Furthermore, bearing these costs has proven difficult and even financially detrimental to various network service providers.

This may produce several problems and / or complications.

For instance, if the network infrastructure is installed at a location such as a fast-food restaurant, space may be limited as to how much equipment may be present.

Installing an additional access controller for each additional wireless service provider may not be feasible.

This may also add several costs.

Not only may there be various up-front costs, there may also be on-going additional costs associated with monitoring and / or maintenance of additional equipment.

When multiple service providers install networking equipment at a retail entity location, other drawbacks may become present as well.

With the use of additional access controllers, use of resources (e.g., bandwidth) of the connection to the network or Internet may become unbalanced or congested.

The use of multiple access controllers may contribute to a complicated implementation, even if the implementation is possible.

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