Posted at 11:03 a.m., Friday, September 22, 2006
Press release: Survey of WiFi users in Waikiki
Press release
September 22, 2006FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:Joshua Beil
President & Cofounder
josh@skywavebroadband.net
(808) 286-3774
WiFi Surveys for a Wireless Waikiki
HONOLULU - For the past six month, SkyWave Broadband, one of the state's fastest growing Wireless Broadband Providers, has been offering 20 minutes of free WiFi access to anyone that takes its short survey. This survey feature is Skywave's second industry-leading initiative to make WiFi access available for free to the general public. The first was the announcement with the City of Honolulu unveiling the company's OpenSky™ model in November 2005. That made access to certain websites, including all City and County of Honolulu websites, available for free.
Within the past six months of the survey's availability, there have been 1,122 responses, which provide unique insights into the behaviors and interests of WiFi users, both visitor and local. Of the total surveys collected, 86% were from visitors and 14% were from locals.
The data set gathered from visitors using WiFi taking the survey shows that:
o 74% of visitors are here for pleasure, 15% for business, and 11% for both.
o 65% of visitors will be staying for less than 1 week, 24% for 1-2 weeks, and 11% for more than 2 weeks.
o 44% of visitors using WiFi will be visiting an outer island, while the remaining 56% are visiting Oahu only.
Additionally, the top 5 activities that visitors using WiFi are interested in doing while visiting Hawaii are as follows:
1) Pearl Harbor Tour (18%)
2) Shopping (17%)
3) Visiting the North Shore (16%)
4) Snorkeling / Scuba (14%)
5) Going to a luau (9%)
The data set gathered from locals using WiFi taking the survey shows that:
o 52% are professionals, 40% are students, and 8% are military
o 59% use Oceanic Roadrunner as their residential Internet service provider, 14% user Hawaiian Telcom, 9% use AOL
"There's simply no substitute for actual data," said Skywave President and Cofounder, Josh Beil. "Along with our survey data, we have click-through reports available for websites participating in OpenSky™ and that combination gives us some very compelling ways to measure online advertising components of our WiFi business."
"SkyWave is also able to customize its survey questions for organizations in Hawaii," Beil added, "thereby providing primary research capabilities for anyone interested in the WiFi-user market segment."
About SkyWave
SkyWave Broadband, Inc. is the owner/operator of the fastest growing network of WiFi hotspots in Hawaii. SkyWave uses complementary technologies to connect people when they roam with Broadband-to-Go, a service good at nearly sixty locations on Oahu including Waikiki, Downtown, Hawaii Kai, Kailua, Manoa, Ward Center & Warehouse, Aiea, and Kapolei. Founded in 2003 and based in Honolulu, SkyWave provides high-speed Wi-Fi (802.11) and other wireless access solutions to commercial, retail, and residential clients and to government agencies including the City & County of Honolulu, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Hawaii, and the Shidler Group on the Open Sky Network.