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Hotspot cash accumulation: you won't guess how much you can make

Attentive readers may have noticed a new feature of NewsWireless; the blog. It was in the process of creating this section that we tidied up the old "links" section and put all the old, historic items into "news" - and discovered a few things that needed verifying. And Wireless Orbit was one of them.

It turns out that although I had it tagged as a source of hotspots, there's more to it. It's actually a site that signs up people with hotspots into the Orbit network, and signs up customers for those hotspots.

OK (I thought) I have a hotspot. It's not an official hotspot, but I don't mind sticking my office network onto the list, especially in exchange for a little money each month. There are, after all, at least four of my neighbours who are without wireless, since I installed WEP security in January... and so I opened up the "sign up" page.

At first, I saw what seemed to be a promise of fifty bucks income a month.

"Welcome to Wireless Orbit's Wireless Hotspot Solution.
Your total monthly fee is assessed based on the number of locations (Access Controllers) you plan to deploy your Wireless Internet Service. Our monthly fee per location is $49.99" - followed by some guff about "you'll get a better price."

Closer reading showed a reference to providing my Amex details.

Let me get this right: I bring my investment in backhaul and equipment to the party, and I PAY THEM to provide it to others?