dragons den square mile

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Alrob

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anyone see the program tonight. I tried to get square mile to do me a deal for the summer months but Dominique declined.
I am loathed to pay monthly subscription for something I would only use in summer

anyone got any views?
 
Just seen it, good luck to the guy but I agree that boat ownership is a seasonal thing and if the businesses don't understand/accept this then they are doomed to fail.
 
Are there any harbours in the Solent where you can get free wi-fi? Seems to me that a decent marina could offer free access at very little cost to themselves. I noticed last time I was at Bembridge that they have a timed pay-as-you-go type access, which cost an incredible amount - something like £2 for 30mins or thereabouts.
 
[ QUOTE ]
anyone see the program tonight. I tried to get square mile to do me a deal for the summer months but Dominique declined.
I am loathed to pay monthly subscription for something I would only use in summer

anyone got any views?

[/ QUOTE ]

£120 for the year seems like a good deal for unlimited use.

I'm happily paying £35 a month in Lagos, (when I'm there). If nothing else, it enables me to use Skype to make phone calls at 1.2p per minute. Depending on how much you use your mobile from the marina, this alone could save you £120 per annum, even if you only use it for 3 or 4 months of the year....

Dont you spend a bit of time on the boat out of season? My dad uses his like a garden shed, just to get away for a while.

The 100 minutes in a month for £5 , then 15p per minute seems like a non starter unless you hardly use it, and the PAYG at 20p per minute only has to use 25 minutes to clock up £5.

What kind of deal did you ask him to do?
 
Free WiFi...

Burnham Yacht Harbour in Essex and Shotley Marina in Suffolk both offer free WiFi access. Why don't more marinas do this? The cost to them is negligible.
 
Re: Free WiFi...

Yes the cost might be trivial for a small handful to use. What about the near future when dozens or even hundreds of people in the Marina want it. What number of average users will a broadband connection sustain. You may find a greater investment will be called for.
 
Re: Free WiFi...

I imagine most marinas farm it out because they dont want to provide the technical support, which will mainly consist of helping users to set up their own system to receive the service.
 
Re: Free WiFi...

Hmm, maybe marinas are'nt interested in giving value but like to squeeze customers 'till their pips squeak. A novel concept but perhaps possible?
 
Re: Free WiFi...

UK marinas work on the general principle of setting prices as high as they can possibly get away with and then charging through the nose for every possible extra. They can get away with it because each marina is in effect a local monopoly, and people are either dumb enough not to tell them where to get off, or rich enough not to mind being screwed.
 
Re: Free WiFi...

It's a shame - I used SM before it became a chargable service - but I just can't justify any of their pay scales - we don't live in a marina and therefore couldn't make use of the £120 unlimited ... and the PAYG or the 100min scales are too expensive - I'd rather use the GPRS/3G card and get access anywhere...
 
Re: Free WiFi...

Agreed - a 3G data card is definately a better solution for us... the backend of the SM connection in our marina was not broadband (apparently BT hadn't upgraded the cables to the "remote" spot that is our home marina!).

Slow response times coupled with poor signal due to the number of boats between us and the single wifi mast resulted in a QoS that we weren't prepared to sign up to.
 
Re: Free WiFi...

The free WiFi in St Peter Port is very poor and has been since it was put in. As for being 'free' St Peter Port put their charges up by 33% this year, for us it jumped from £18 to be rafted up in the pool outside to £24 for the same in June this year. This by comparison to the 'expensive' solent where we pay £15 for similar facilities in Yarmouth or Lymington where their prices include 17.5% VAT, makes them look positively cheap.

I mentioned both the WiFi and the increased charges to the St Peter Port harbour guy on their stand at SBS last week and just got the disinterested shrug. Well over the years we have spent a great deal of money during our visits there, in their shops and restaurants, usually going for a week in June and later another few days on our way home from Souther Brittany. This year in June we left after 2 days at £24 rafted 3 up, no electrics and non-working WiFi even on the wall by the aerial. When we stopped on our way back from Brittany late August we anchored in Havelet Bay and didn't go ashore, so as a result of increasing their rates by 33% they took probably less than 50% of what we would normally have paid them this year and we spent zilch in the towns shops and restaurants. In future we will stop (probably at anchor) only as long as we need to wait a tide and will hurry on back/on to France, I doubt they will care or notice.
 
Re: Free WiFi...

[ QUOTE ]
Yes the cost might be trivial for a small handful to use. What about the near future when dozens or even hundreds of people in the Marina want it. What number of average users will a broadband connection sustain. You may find a greater investment will be called for.

[/ QUOTE ]No, believe me, the number of CONCURRENT users in a marina (let's imagine a 1000 berth marina with 5% online concurrently = 50 users) is trivial, can be served by ANY wifi router. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Re: Free WiFi...

Yeah but can you imagine how many technical support questions the reception desk will get, poor buggers! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
Re: Free WiFi...

There must be a demand for WiFi all year from "live aboards". I think that despite rules to the contrary, there are usually quite a few virtually "residential" moorings in most marinas. Maybe there are just enough to help to establish an effective commercial base to enable a better service to be provided for casual users. Until huge bandwidth is available I think some sort of charging or time limit would be necessary to prevent overloading.
 
Re: Free WiFi...

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah but can you imagine how many technical support questions the reception desk will get, poor buggers! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[/ QUOTE ]Most WiFi facilities do not offer tech support. Certainly, I wouldn't - considering the number of times I have crashed around trying to get things sorted, and eventually doing so - and I am SUPPOSED to be an expert /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
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